行動旅遊服務分類及系統發展研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學資訊管理學系博士學位論文指導教授:余千智博士. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 行動旅遊服務分類及系統發展研究 Classification and System Development for Mobile Tourism Services. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：張小萍中華民國一百零一年七月.

(2) 摘要行動服務分類與系統開發是一個理論上與實務上重要的議題，其中以應用在旅遊業的行動旅遊服務備受關注。本研究試圖提出以多觀點的角度來找出、分類、評估與開發具有價值的行動旅遊服務。也就是說，本研究試圖提出有價值的行動旅遊服務與服務分類，透過多觀點的角度來評估研究所提出的行動旅遊服務與服務分類，並提出系統開發架構與方法，透過雛型系統建置來驗證系統開發方法的可行性與雛型系統的效能。本研究範圍主要在企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務，主要研究貢獻在於服務分類架構與系統開發架構。本研究試圖透過服務分類架構將企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務彙整出企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務分類，並透過旅客、電信業者與旅遊業等多觀點來評估本研究所提出的企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務與服務分類。本研究並根據系統開發架構來建置與評估企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務的雛型系統，來驗證本研究所提出的行動旅遊服務的可行性。為了驗證本研究所提出的服務分類架構的可應用性，本研究試圖將此服務分類架構延伸應用到企業內部的行動旅遊服務，並透過管理階層與員工雙方的觀點整理出企業內部的行動旅遊服務與服務分類。本研究的研究方法主要為設計科學。透過文獻探討、半結構化的群組訪談與問卷調查來找出、分類與評估企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務與服務分類。透過物件導向系統發展方法與評估問卷來建置並評估企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務的雛型系統。做為一個延伸研究，企業內部的行動旅遊服務與服務分類所採用的研究方法包括文獻探討、半結構化的焦點團體討論與半結構化的田野訪談。在企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務分類研究結果發現：(1) 在企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務分類中，行動搜尋與通知服務、行動推薦服務、行動交易與付款服務為三項旅客認為最有用，且電信業與旅遊業都認為最重要、最可行、最符合成本效益的服務；(2) 相較於旅遊業，電信業對於企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務態度上較積極；(3) 旅遊業與電信業者對於所提出的企業對客戶的行動旅遊服務的評估，在評分排序上是相同的。本研究亦建置行動推薦服務的雛型系統，來說明系統發展架構與設計方法。行動推薦服務會依據旅客現在的位置與時間，以及個人偏好與需求，來進行個人化的地點相關的推薦，包括景點推薦、飯店推薦、餐廳推薦與旅遊行程推薦等。系統滿意度調查顯示該雛型系統具有高度系統滿意度。就企業內部的行動旅遊服務分類的研究結果顯示，不同管理階層對於企業內部的行動旅遊服務有不同的需求，而不同的企業內部的行動旅遊服務在技術上的難易程度也不同。透過企業內部的行動旅遊服務分類架構，很容易瞭解到該企業內部的行動旅遊服務在技術上的複雜度與管理上的需求程度。這樣的服務分類架構對於規劃與開發企業內部的行動旅遊服務，提供一個參考基準與指引。此外，本研究結果指出，行動旅遊品質控管服務對管理階層來說，是很重要、可行與符合成本效益的服務。而行動銷售支援服務對管理階層來說，是一個可行有效但不是很重要的服務。最後，本研究建議後續研究將本研究所提的服務分類架構與系統開發架構應用到其他的行動服務領域，以驗證本研究所提出的服務分類架構與系統開發架構的可應用性。. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 關鍵字：服務分類、系統發展、行動旅遊服務、行動服務。.

(3) Abstract The service classification and system development of mobile services is an important issue both in research and in practice, and research attention is called to the mobile services for the tourism industry. This study tries to identify, classify, evaluate, and develop value-added mobile tourism services with multiple perspectives. That is, user groups with different perspectives are asked to evaluate the proposed value-added mobile tourism services as well as a mobile tourism service classification framework. Moreover, this study also proposes the system development framework and processes, and the prototype system is built and evaluated to validate the feasibility of the proposed system development framework as well as the effectiveness of the prototype system. The research scope is focused on the B2C mobile tourism services, and the main contribution of this study is the proposed service classification framework and the system development framework. This study tries to identify and classify B2C mobile tourism services based on the proposed service classification framework and processes. Moreover, tourists, 3G operators and the tourism industry are asked to evaluate the proposed B2C mobile tourism services as well as the service classification. Based on the proposed system development framework and processes, this study also builds and evaluates the prototype system to validate the feasibility of the proposed B2C mobile tourism services. To validate the appliance of our service classification framework, an extension research to the B2E mobile tourism services is also conducted. Management perspectives including managers and employees are taken into accounts to summarize the B2E mobile tourism services and the service classification framework. The research methodology used in this study is the design science research methodology. With literature reviews, semi-structured group interviews, and surveys to identify, classify, and evaluate B2C mobile tourism services as well as the service classification. The prototype system of the B2C mobile tourism services is built through object-oriented system analysis and design, and the survey questionnaire is used for the system evaluation of the prototype system. As an extension study, the B2E mobile tourism service classification research is built with literature reviews, semi-structured focus group discussions and semi-structured field interviews. The B2C mobile tourism service classification research results are as follows. (1) The mobile search & notification services, the mobile recommendation services, and the mobile transaction & payment services are top three useful B2C mobile tourism services valued by tourists, and these three B2C mobile tourism services are top three most important, feasible and cost-benefit effective services from the 3G operators’ and travel agencies’ perspectives. (2) The 3G operators hold more positive attitudes towards the B2C mobile tourism services than the tourism industry does. (3) Tourism industry sets the same priority list toward the proposed B2C mobile tourism services as the 3G operators do. In this study, an application prototype of mobile recommendation services is also implemented to illustrate the development framework and design methods. The mobile recommendation services provide personalized and location-based recommendations regarding sightseeing spots, hotels, restaurants, and packaged tour plans based on tourists’ current location and time, as well as personal preferences and needs. Results from the system evaluation indicate high system satisfaction toward the prototype system. Based on the research results of the B2E mobile tourism service classification, different management levels have different needs for B2E mobile tourism services, and different B2E mobile tourism services have different technology complexities. Through this B2E mobile tourism service classification framework, it is easy to understand the technology complexities of the B2E mobile tourism services and managerial needs for the B2E mobile tourism services. Such service classification framework offers a reference baseline and guidance for planning. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(4) and system development of B2E mobile tourism services. Moreover, this research results show that from managers’ perspectives, the mobile tour quality control services are important, feasible, and cost-benefit effective while the mobile sales support services are feasible, effective, but not so important services. Finally, future researches are suggested to apply the service classification framework and system development framework to other mobile service domain to validate the appliance of the proposed service classification framework and system development framework. Keywords: service classification, system development, mobile tourism service, and mobile service.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(5) 目錄 Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1. 1.1. Research Background ................................................................................................. 1. 1.2. Research Objective ..................................................................................................... 2. 1.3. Research Methodology............................................................................................... 4. 1.4. Study Limitation......................................................................................................... 8. Chapter 2. Literature Review on B2C Mobile Tourism Service ................................. 9. 2.1. Requirement Assessment of B2C Mobile Tourism Service ....................................... 9. 2.2. System Development for B2C Mobile Tourism Service .......................................... 11. 3.1 3.2 3.3. 治政大 Research Method B2C Mobile Tourism Service Classification ............................... 14 Research Method for立 B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation .............................. 19. Research Method for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Identification ......................... 13. Research Result for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Classification ........... 24. 學. Chapter 4. Research Method for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Classification......... 13. ‧ 國. Chapter 3. Demographics for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation Survey ...................... 24. 4.2. Reliability and Validity for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation Survey ........ 25. 4.3. B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation by Tourists .............................................. 30. 4.4. B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation by Service Providers .............................. 31. 4.5. Discussion on B2C Mobile Tourism Service Classification Result ......................... 33. er. io. sit. y. Nat. System Development for B2C Mobile Tourism Service ......................... 35. al. n. Chapter 5. ‧. 4.1. Ch. i n U. v. 5.1. Requirement Analysis of B2C Mobile Tourism Service .......................................... 35. 5.2. System Framework and Process for B2C Mobile Tourism Service ......................... 36. 5.3. Database Design for B2C Mobile Tourism Service ................................................. 38. 5.4. System Implementation for B2C Mobile Tourism Service ...................................... 44. 5.5. System Evaluation for B2C Mobile Tourism Service .............................................. 48. Chapter 6. engchi. Extension to B2E Mobile Tourism Service Classification....................... 51. 6.1. Literature Review on B2E Mobile Tourism Service Classification ......................... 51. 6.2. Research Method for B2E Mobile Tourism Service Classification ......................... 53. 6.3. Research Result for B2E Mobile Tourism Service Classification ........................... 58. 6.4. Discussion on B2E Mobile Tourism Service Classification Result ......................... 66. Chapter 7. Conclusion ................................................................................................ 69. 7.1. Discussions and Managerial Implications ................................................................ 69. 7.2. Limitations and Future Research Directions ............................................................ 70 I.

(6) References……………………. ............................................................................................... 73 Appendix 1. B2C Tourist On-line Survey................................................................................ 79 Appendix 2. B2C 3G Operator On-line Survey ....................................................................... 82 Appendix 3. B2C Travel Agency Mail Survey ........................................................................ 86 Appendix 4. B2C System Evaluation Survey .......................................................................... 89 Appendix 5. B2E Mobile Service Survey ................................................................................ 91 Appendix 6. B2E Mobile Service Framework Survey ............................................................. 94 Appendix 7. Item-to-item Correlation Matrix of the Usefulness Ratings by Tourists ............. 97 Appendix 8. Item-to-item Correlation Matrix of the Importance Ratings by 3G Operators ... 98 Appendix 9 Item-to-item Correlation Matrix of the Feasibility Ratings by 3G Operators ...... 99 Appendix 10. Item-to-item Correlation Matrix of the Effectiveness Ratings by 3G. 治政大 Ratings by Travel Appendix 11. Item-to-item Correlation Matrix of the Importance Agencies………………………立 ............................................................................................. 101 Operators…………………. ................................................................................................... 100. ‧ 國. 學. Appendix 12. Item-to-item Correlation Matrix of the Feasibility Ratings by Travel Agencies…………………… ................................................................................................. 102. ‧. Appendix 13. Item-to-item Correlation Matrix of the Effectiveness Ratings by Travel Agencies………………….. ................................................................................................... 103 . n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. . Ch. engchi. II. i n U. v.

(7) 圖目錄 Figure 1. Research Scope ........................................................................................................... 4 Figure 2. Multiple Perspectives and Functional Complexity ..................................................... 4 Figure 3. Design Science Research Methodology ..................................................................... 5 Figure 4. B2C Research Framework .......................................................................................... 6 Figure 5. B2E Research Framework .......................................................................................... 6 Figure 6. B2C Service Classification Research Process and Research Method ........................ 7 Figure 7. B2C System Development Research Process and Research Method ......................... 7 Figure 8. B2E Service Classification Research Process and Research Method......................... 7. 政治大. Figure 9. B2C Mobile Tourism Service Classification Framework......................................... 17 Figure 10. Functional Framework for Mobile Tour Planning Recommendation .................... 36. 立. Figure 11. Personalized Location-based Tour Planning Recommendation Process ................ 37. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 12. Object-Oriented Data Model .................................................................................. 38 Figure 13. Class Diagram ......................................................................................................... 40. ‧. Figure 14. Tour Plan Recommendation Process Model ........................................................... 42 Figure 15. Hotel Evaluation Model and Rules ......................................................................... 43. Nat. sit. y. Figure 16. Sightseeing Evaluation Model and Rules ............................................................... 43. io. er. Figure 17. Restaurant Evaluation Model and Rules ................................................................. 43 Figure 18. B2C Prototype System Environment ...................................................................... 44. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. Figure 19. Output Screenshots of Hotel Recommendation Services ....................................... 45. engchi. Figure 20. Output Screenshots of Sightseeing Recommendation Services ............................. 46 Figure 21. Output Screenshots of Restaurant Recommendation Services ............................... 47 Figure 22. Output Screenshots of Tour Plan Recommendation Services ................................ 47 Figure 23. Output Screenshots of User Profile Configuration Services .................................. 48 Figure 24. Research Contribution ............................................................................................ 69. III.

(8) 表目錄 Table 1. Revised List of B2C Mobile Tourism Services ......................................................... 16 Table 2. Return Profiles of the Travel Agencies of B2C Survey ............................................. 20 Table 3. Survey Questions of the B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation by Tourists ....... 21 Table 4. Survey Questions of the B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation by Service Providers................................................................................................................................... 22 Table 5. Respondent Profiles for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Surveys ............................... 25 Table 6. Reliability and Correlation Matrix of Constructs for Tourist Survey ........................ 27 Table 7. Reliability and Correlation Matrix of Constructs for 3G Operator Survey ............... 27 Table 8. Reliability and Correlation Matrix of Constructs for Travel Agency Survey ............ 28. 政治大 Table 10. Factor Analysis Results ............................................................................................ 29 立 Table 11. B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation by Service Providers .............................. 30 Table 9. Cross-Factor Loadings ............................................................................................... 29. ‧ 國. 學. Table 12. B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation by Service Providers .............................. 31 Table 13. B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation by Travel Agency Types ....................... 32. ‧. Table 14. B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation by Multiple Perspectives ....................... 33. y. Nat. Table 15. Relational Schema .................................................................................................... 41. sit. Table 16. System Evaluation of the B2C Mobile Tourism Services ....................................... 50. er. io. Table 17. Summary of B2E Mobile Tourism Services ............................................................ 60. al. v i n Table 19. Summary of B2E Mobile C Tourism Service Classification and Evaluation.............. 65 hengchi U n. Table 18. Statistics Report of B2E Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation................................. 64. IV.

(9) Chapter 1. Introduction. The discussions on research background of the mobile tourism services are presented in section 1.1. Research objective of this study is presented in section 1.2. Design science research methodology, research frameworks, and research processes are illustrated in section 1.3, followed by a study limitation presented in section 1.4.. 1.1. Research Background. With the advances in wireless and mobile technologies, mobile commerce has created huge opportunities for businesses to offer value-added services to consumers, partners, as well as employees (Anckar and D’Incau, 2002; Clarke, 2001; Chen and Cheng, 2010). Among various mobile commerce related issues, one major research issue to be addressed is to identify, classify, evaluate, and design useful mobile services for mobile users as well as mobile organizations, and therefore more research efforts devoted to this area are highly expected (Anckar and D’Incau, 2002; Carlsson, Carlsson, and Walden, 2005; Chiu et al., 2009; Cil, Alpturk, and Yazgan, 2005; Maamar, Yahyaoui, and Mansoor, 2004; Ngai and Gunasekaran, 2007; Scornavacca, Barnes and Huff, 2006; Tarasewich, 2003; Varshney, 2003). That is, the requirement assessment and system development of mobile services and applications to assist on-the-move users in making mobility-related decisions is considered a critical research topic.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. As one of the most important type of mobile services, location-based services focus mainly on providing point of interest information to mobile users based on their current positions (Barnes, 2003; Giaglis, Kourouthanassis and Tsamakos, 2002; Sadoun and Al-Bayari, 2007). On the other hand, as major e-commerce and e-business application functions, personalized recommendation services aim at suggesting products and services to meet users’ needs and preferences (Yu, 2005; Zhang, Chen and Zhou, 2005). It has been noted that, without proper system support, the integrated process of searching and filtering products, comparing alternatives, and recommending suitable selections for users can be extremely complicated and hard to be carried out. Furthermore, when taking into account the support of mobile users with a variety of mobile devices in personalized and location-based decision making, the complexities of the problem and associated solution processes are compounded significantly, and the design and implementation issues for constructing the desired personalized mobile recommender systems become even more complex (Kwon and Shin, 2008; Ricci and Nguyen, 2007).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The tourism industry is chosen as an application domain due to the facts that mobile commerce gradually intensifies competition in the tourism domain (Buhalis and Licata, 2002; European Commission, 2003). Moreover, tourism-related companies are relatively more mobile, agile, and knowledge-oriented organizations, and the needs of communication, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and decision support among internal employees and external customers/partners are significant (Cooper, 2006; Liebowitz, 2007; Werthner and Ricci, 2004). Furthermore, the tourism domain is one of those industries that are able to gain 1.

(10) enormous synergy effects from the use of mobile devices and applications (Feyne et al., 2009; Wang and Cheung, 2004). However, even though the travel agencies are prime candidates of mobile e-business, the lack of innovative thinking in mobile service design, and the uncertainty related to technology as well as market aspects hinder the advances in the development and application of mobile tourism services (Grun et al., 2008; Wang and Cheung, 2004). In the tourism management domain, mobile and wireless technologies have been pointed out as one of the most interesting areas of technological innovation for enhancing Internet applications to tourism (Buhalis and Law, 2008). Identified primary functions of location-based services for travelers include localization of persons and objects, routing between them, as well as search for objects such as hotels, restaurants, shops, or sights and information about travelling conditions. Eventually, tourists are typical consumers who have strong mobility-related needs and have shown significant interests in acquiring location-based services during the trips (Werthner and Ricci, 2004). They like to make their own tour plans during the trips, and moreover, tourists have a high frequency in rescheduling their trips to suit the dynamically changing conditions and needs. As a key application service in tourism, travel and tour planning is a process of searching, selecting, grouping and sequencing destination related products and services including attractions, accommodations, restaurants and activities. With more availability of comprehensive data about travelers and destinations as well as more exchanges of experiences between travelers, the location-based recommendation services based on content and/or collaborative filtering technologies attract more interests in the travel and tourism domain (Kansa and Wilde, 2008). How to provide personalized and location-based recommendation services for facilitating tour planning process inevitably becomes a critical research and practical issue in mobile tourism applications. However, existing mobile services related to personalized tour recommendation services are still very primitive. In the literature, although there are more and more mobile applications to explore position information for guiding the on-the-trip users, there is still a lack of personalization in context to meet the interests, preferences and devices of the individual tourists (Scherp and Boll, 2004). Ideal personalized and location-based tour planning recommendation services should be able to integrate information about tourists’ preferences, needs and constraints, location and time information, destination and attraction information, as well as recommendation models and rules in order for recommending personalized tour plans in which sightseeing spots, restaurants, and hotels are bundled to match the context and location aware conditions. Since there are very limited previous research efforts undertaking the integrated issues of personalized and location-based tour plan recommendations, this study tries to fill the gap by providing a system architecture and development method for efficiently and effectively guiding the design and implementation of the demanded location-based recommendation service systems to support personalized tour planning.. 政治大. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. 1.2. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Research Objective. Tourism providers use short message services for distributing tour information and for allowing tourists to check flight arrivals and departures, etc via mobile devices. The tourism industry acknowledges that the launch of value-added mobile tourism services via the 3G 2.

(11) platform is clearly identified as the main factors affecting the competitiveness of the tourism industry, and it is clear that mobile tourism services will eventually be mature and change the way the tourism industry works today (Buhalis and Licata, 2002; European Commission, 2003). However, the tourism industry still doubles the technical complexity and profitable issues for mobile tourism services via 3G platform. That is, there are several difficulties facing the tourism industry. First, many potent value-added mobile tourism services will be possible via the 3G platform; however, it is not clear what these mobile tourism services are. Secondly, the technical difficulty and cost-benefit issues are key business concerns regarding the mobile tourism services. Thirdly, the tourism industry alone cannot launch the mobile tourism services because they need location information from 3G operators. Existing literatures try to solve the difficulties facing the tourism industry regarding the mobile tourism services by proposing a variety of mobile tourism services (e.g. tour route recommendation services and weather forecast notification services). Even these mobile tourism services are interesting, but there is still lacking an overall mobile tourism service classification framework. Moreover, there are no service evaluation surveys from multiple perspectives to our knowledge. Thirdly, it is important to propose a system development framework and process for the system development of mobile tourism services to meet the concerns of technical complexities facing the tourism industry. This study tries to fulfill the gaps of service identification, service classification, service evaluation, and system development of mobile tourism services.. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. ‧. Since the existing literatures are of limited assistance in unraveling the complexities of identification, classification, evaluation, and development of useful business-to-customer (B2C), the objective of this study is set to identify, specify, classify and develop potential useful B2C mobile tourism services. That is, the B2C study includes service identification, service classification & service evaluation as well as the system development and system evaluation. This study also extends the service identification, service classification, and service evaluation to the business-to-employee (B2E) mobile tourism services. The research scope is shown in Figure 1. In this study, the B2C domain is chosen as the primary research domain for the service classification and system development of mobile tourism services. To validate the generalizability of our service classification framework and processes, this study also extends to the B2E domain to come up with the B2E mobile tourism service classification.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. To deal with the service classification and system development of mobile tourism services, multiple perspectives and functional complexities are considered in this study, as shown in Figure 2. In the B2C mobile tourism service study, the multiple perspectives include tourists’, 3G operators’, and travel agencies’ perspectives. Based on the complexity of system design and development of mobile tourism services, functional perspectives are also taken into consideration to categorize the B2C mobile tourism services into mobile information & communication services, location-based services, context-aware services, and transaction-support services. In the B2E mobile tourism service study, managers and employees are representatives of the management & operational perspectives respectively. The functional perspectives include mobile information & communication services, location-based services and context-aware services. 3.

(12) Figure 1. Research Scope. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 sit. io. al. er. Research Methodology. n. 1.3. y. Nat. Figure 2. Multiple Perspectives and Functional Complexity. Ch. i n U. v. Design science is chosen as the research methodology because the nature of this study is a research in information technology to address the design tasks faced by practitioners. It is important that the problem is properly conceptualized and represented, appropriated technologies are constructed, and solutions must be implemented and evaluated using appropriated criteria (March and Smith, 1995). According to the design science proposed by March and Smith (1995), the four research activities are to build, evaluate, theorize, and justify; the research outputs are constructs, model, method, and instantiation. Hevner et al. (2004) propose design science research guidelines including design as an artifact, problem relevance, design evaluation, research contribution, research rigor, design as a search process, and communication of research to help researchers to create new and innovative artifacts. These guidelines help researchers to implement and evaluate information systems within design science paradigm.. engchi. Peffers et al. (2007) propose the design science research methodology, as shown in Figure 3. There are six activities in the design science research methodology including problem identification & motivation, objectives of a solution, design & development, demonstration, evaluation, and communication. Based on the design science research 4.

(13) methodology proposed by Peffers et al. (2007), this study tries to identify, classify, evaluate and develop useful B2C mobile tourism services. The prototype system is implemented and evaluated to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed B2C mobile tourism services. Additional extension to the identification, classification, and evaluation of B2E mobile tourism services are also proposed to illustrate the appliance of the classification research framework and processes.. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 3. Design Science Research Methodology. ‧. The research framework of B2C mobile tourism service classification and system development are presented in Figure 4. The main research processes in the B2C research framework include B2C mobile tourism service identification, B2C mobile tourism service classification, B2C mobile tourism service evaluation, and system development & system evaluation of B2C mobile tourism services. B2C mobile tourism services are identified from literature reviews and investigation of practical B2C mobile tourism services. Then, both multiple perspectives and functional complexity are taken into accounts to build the B2C mobile tourism service classification. When it comes to the B2C mobile tourism service evaluation, three surveys are distributed in this study, including tourist survey, 3G operator survey and travel agency survey. Tourists are asked to evaluate the usefulness of the proposed B2C mobile tourism services while the importance, feasibility, and cost-benefit effectiveness of the proposed B2C mobile tourism services are evaluated by service providers including 3G operators and travel agencies. Based on the results of B2C mobile tourism service evaluation, a system development framework and processes are proposed and a prototype system of B2C mobile tourism services is designed and implemented. The system evaluation criteria for the B2C mobile tourism service prototype system are user interface & layout, functionality, ease of use, understandability, satisfaction, and intention for future use.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The research framework of multi-dimensional classification and evaluation of B2E mobile tourism services is formulated and presented in Figure 5. The main research processes in the B2E research framework include B2E mobile tourism service identification, B2E mobile tourism service classification, and B2E mobile tourism service evaluation. Mobile services & mobile values for mobile businesses and tourism industry characteristics are considered when identifying the B2E mobile tourism services. Mobile values for mobile businesses include efficiency & effectiveness, time-critical & mobility-related, organizational agility, collaboration, innovation & decision support, and competence enhancement. Tourism 5.

(14) industry characteristics considered is mobile communication, agile response, learning organization, and knowledge-oriented services. When classifying the B2E mobile tourism services, management/operational perspectives and functional perspectives are considered. The management support considered includes strategic planning, management control, knowledge management, and operational control. Based on the functional complexities of the mobile service design and development, the proposed B2E mobile tourism services are categorized into mobile information & communication services, location-based services, and context-aware services. The B2E mobile tourism service is evaluated with criteria including importance, feasibility, and cost-benefit effectiveness. The fitness and soundness of the mapping of the B2E mobile tourism services into the corresponding slot of the B2E mobile tourism service classification framework is evaluated by managers as well as employees.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. v. n. Figure 4. B2C Research Framework. Ch. engchi. i n U. Figure 5. B2E Research Framework 6.

(15) Based on the research frameworks, the detailed research processes and research methods of B2C service classification, B2C system development, and B2E service classification are depicted in Figures 6-8. As shown in Figure 6, literature reviews and investigation of practical B2C mobile tourism services are used to identify value-added B2C mobile tourism services. The B2C mobile tourism service classification is built upon the discussion results of seven semi-structured group interviews with total fifty-six students. Three surveys are used for the B2C mobile tourism service evaluation, including tourist survey, 3G operator survey, and travel agency survey. As shown in Figure 7, object-oriented analysis and design is chosen as the system analysis and design method for building the prototype system of B2C mobile tourism services. Twenty-eight students test the prototype system and fill up the system evaluation survey. As shown in Figure 8, the research method for B2E mobile tourism service identification is literature reviews and a case study of a large travel agency. The research method used to classify the B2E mobile tourism services is two focus group discussions with total thirteen senior students major in tourism management. The research method of the B2E mobile tourism service evaluation is semi-structured field interviews with five local travel agencies.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. Figure 6. B2C Service Classification Research Process and Research Method. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 7. B2C System Development Research Process and Research Method. Figure 8. B2E Service Classification Research Process and Research Method 7.

(16) In the subsequent sections, this study is organized as follows. A brief literature review on requirement assessment and system development of B2C mobile tourism services is provided in section 2. Section 3 describes the research method and process for identifying, classifying, and evaluating the potential B2C mobile tourism services. Section 4 presents the research results and discussions of the proposed service classification of the B2C mobile tourism services. The proposed functional framework, processes, models and rules for developing and delivering B2C mobile tourism services as well as the prototype system & system evaluation are presented in section 5. In section 6, an extension research to the service classification of the B2E mobile tourism services are presented. Section 7 contains a concluding remark with future research issues.. 1.4. Study Limitation. This study has limitations that should be acknowledged. First, we only choose the travel agencies as sample of the tourism industry because the travel agencies are key candidates for the mobile services. Despite careful attention to this issue using the stratified random sampling method, it is possible that other players in the tourism industry like hotels and sightseeing spots might have different opinions. Moreover, the tourism contexts would be further detailed into four scenarios: domestic budget travelling, domestic group travelling, oversea budge travelling, and oversea group travelling. Thirdly, the tour operations would be further detailed as inbound tours and outbound tours. Finally, the sampling base is limited to Taiwan, and the generalizability of our model to other countries needs to be further investigated.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 8. i n U. v.

(17) Chapter 2. Literature Review on B2C Mobile Tourism Service. The discussions on the requirement assessment of B2C mobile tourism services based on literature reviews and practical mobile tourism services are presented in section 2.1. The discussions on the system development of B2C mobile tourism services are illustrated in section 2.2.. 2.1. Requirement Assessment of B2C Mobile Tourism Service. Among previous research addressing the requirements of mobile tourism services, Proll and Retschitzegger (2000) address this issue by providing real-time tourism information like weather forecasts and snow reports via mobile devices to help tourists in scheduling their tour plans and outdoor activities. According to Cheverst et al. (2000), the mobile tour guide services are useful in providing up-to-date and context-aware tourism information to tourists via handheld devices. Yeo and Huang (2003) report that by gathering and providing accurate, prompt and relevant traffic condition to tourists, the mobile tourism services solve the transportation problems for tourists during the trips. Tsamakos, Giaglis, and Kourouthamassis (2002) indicate a promising application potential to auction and reverse auction of tourism products and services over mobile devices to allow tourists to enjoy personalized services and to empower tourists with active participation in the industry. Research groups of Berger, Lehmann, and Lehner (2003) as well as Hinze and Voisard (2003) point out the potential of location-based information services in the tourism industry. Chiu et al. (2009) propose a multi-agent mobile route advisory system for a multi-modal public transport network. Yu (2005) suggests that tourism related information search and recommendation, transaction and payment, as well as trip tracking and quality control services can be well supported by using mobile devices. Mallat et al. (2006) observe that usefulness and benefits of the mobile ticketing services are perceived differently in different use situations. Axup and Viller (2005), on the other hand, show the user needs for travel gossips on the road from the mobile travel community services. Besides, major functions and benefits of mobile tourism services mentioned in previous studies include allowing tourists to locate friends (Olofsson, Carlsson, and Sjolander, 2006), to access real-time tour information such as road conditions, weather forecasts, events changes, and flight delays for tour control (Berger, Lehmann, and Lehner, 2003; Cheverst et al., 2000; Hinze and Voisard, 2003; Kakaletris et al., 2004; Proll and Retschitzegger, 2000; Yeo and Huang, 2003; Yu, 2005), to hook on the mobile tourism community to ask for the comments of nearby vegetarian restaurants or to share the latest tour news via mobile devices (Aschoff and Novak, 2008; Axup and Viller, 2005; Nielsen, 2004), to use theme-based, multimedia supported, interactive, personalized mobile tour guides to seize indoor and outdoor learning opportunities like museum exhibition guidance or bird watching activities during the trips (Abowd et al., 1997; Alfaro et al., 2004; Cabrera et al., 2005; Chen, Kao, and Sheu, 2003; Cheverst et al., 2000), to get recommendations on restaurants, events, sightseeing spots, hotels, transportation options, direction instructions, souvenirs, and tour plans (Ardissono et al., 2003; Bellotti et al., 2008; Berger, Lehmann, and. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 9. i n U. v.

(18) Lehner, 2003; Castillo et al., 2008; Cheverst et al., 2000; Chiu et al., 2009; Nielsen, 2004; Pousman et al., 2004; Yu, 2005), and to initiate auctions, book, and pay for last-minute trips, train tickets, car rentals, and hotel reservations (Cheverst et al., 2000; Goto and Kambayashi, 2003; Lukkari, Korhonen, and Ojala, 2004; Mallat et al., 2006; Ondrus and Pigneur, 2006; Ortiz et al., 2001; Tsamakos, Giaglis, and Kourouthanassis, 2002; Yu, 2005). From literature reviews on B2C mobile tourism services, prior researches acknowledge the significant needs of the B2C mobile tourism services, and they address the requirements of B2C mobile tourism services by proposing specific types of B2C mobile tourism services to solve specific types of B2C mobile tourism issues. However, they do not delve into the dynamics of the whole tour decision-making processes from tourist perspectives and therefore existing literatures are of limited assistance in unraveling the complexities of requirements of the B2C mobile tourism services. This study addresses the above gaps in the B2C mobile tourism service literatures by presenting a simple yet useful B2C mobile tourism service classification framework that can serve as the basis for further exploration of the requirement assessments of the B2C mobile tourism services. Moreover, there is little study on the importance, feasibility, and cost-benefit effectiveness assessment of the B2C mobile tourism services from the business perspectives. Existing B2C mobile tourism services researches lack empirical observations of service providers’ responses to the proposed B2C mobile tourism services with real business operation considerations. Past B2C mobile tourism services do not employ tourist surveys as well as business surveys, wherein tourists and service providers are asked to respond to hypothetical scenarios. Even though survey responses are challenged by not being indicative of final choices, survey results are still important references to observe tourists’ as well as service providers’ assessments of B2C mobile tourism services. In brief, it is significant important to have a multi-facet requirement assessment to identify potential value-added B2C mobile tourism services from both tourists’ and service providers’ perspectives. Since such observations are missing from existing literatures, this study represents a first step in this direction. In summary, it can be easily seen that previous works on B2C mobile tourism services focus mainly on specific service types or issues, the lacks of comprehensive studies regarding the integrated B2C mobile tourism service classification framework, as well as empirical evidence on assessing B2C mobile tourism service requirements are significant.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In addition to the literature reviews on B2C mobile tourism services, practical mobile tourism services provided by the tourism industry, 3G operators, Taiwan government offices, etc. are also presented. Current travel and tourism related websites such as Travelocity, Expedia, and Priceline launch the mobile tourism services to allow travelers to access travel information via mobile devices. For example, travelers can view their current itineraries, book ground transportation and hotels, and receive up-to-the-minute information about flight status. Moreover, other useful travel tools include access to a currency converter calculator, city guide and destination information, and local weather reports, etc. Priceline also provides highlights of Zagat-rated restaurants and attractions by city. These mobile tourism services meet the information needs, but no personalized recommendation services have been provided in current mobile tourism services offered by e-tourism websites. We also investigate some practical B2C mobile tourism services in Taiwan provided by the government offices (e.g., Central Weather Bureau, Yangmingshan National Park, and Taipei Travel Net), the 3G 10.

(19) operators (Taiwan Mobile, Chunghwa Telecom, and FETnet), the GPS-based navigation service providers (TOBE, PAPAGO, and TomTom), and the tourism industry (Eva Airways and Lion Travel Service). Available B2C mobile tourism services in Taiwan include weather forecast information for major sightseeing spots, static introduction and direction information for a specific sightseeing spot, predicted bus arrival time for a selected bus number, nearby restaurant information based on tourist current location, mobile payment services like mobile wallets, mobile credit cards, and travel insurance payment, tour route recommendations, map-based and audio-enabled direction instructions, fight re-schedule notification services, and hotel reservation confirmation messages, etc. These service providers offer mobile payment services, location-based information and recommendation services, but no personalized recommendation services have been offered by current B2C mobile tourism services providers in Taiwan.. 2.2. System Development for B2C Mobile Tourism Service. 政治大. Among many research works regarding personalized and/or location-based mobile services, Chen, Zhang, and Zhou (2005) propose an architecture design of an m-service portal. In their proposed architecture, there are three major components, namely, list manager, profiler, and agency. List manager maintains a personalized list of preconfigured m-services specified by mobile users. Profiler is responsible for storing personal information and preferences such as information needs and message delivery preference. Agency uses intelligent agent technologies to automatically search in the web service/m-service registers to identify appropriate services that satisfy users’ needs. Focusing on web service interoperation, Zhang, Chen, and Zhou (2005) provide a framework for dynamic and personalized composition of web services. Four major components specified in the framework include storages for personal preference settings, web services for inter-business cooperation, business intelligence to satisfy users’ needs, and geographic displays for location-based services. Hand et al. (2006) propose a three-tier location-based development architecture that consists of client communication tier, application-tier, and geographic information system (GIS) tier. The client communication tier is a protocol independent tier, where the users’ location is established and where communication with the application tier occurs. The application tier performs all results-set mark-up into the appropriate output display for the user’s wireless device. The geographic information system tier performs all location-based application query processing.. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. As for specifically applying to the tourism domain, Kakaletris et al. (2004) address the design and implementation issues for delivering location-based tourism-related content services. Key points that require careful considerations include service features and procedures, content structure, quality-of-service terms, and security. By illustrating an example of generic tourist guide, Scherp and Boll (2004) emphasize on supporting the dynamic generation of personalized multimedia content in respect of the tourist’s interests and preferences, current location and environment, and mobile device used. Aiming at effectively coordinating and integrating disparate information and service resources anytime and anywhere, Chiu et al. (2009) propose a ubiquitous tourist assistance system that is built upon multi-agent and semantic web technologies for providing personalized assistance and automation to the tourists with different preferences and often changing requirements during 11.

(20) their trips. Five agent clusters specified in the system architecture include tourist assistant, ontology maintenance and search, requirement/preference management, package planning, and local tour planning. Ricci and Nguyen (2007) present a critique-based mobile recommender system that lets users expressing session-specific preferences in addition to the long-term collected preferences. The objective is to provide on-tour system support to mobile travelers for selecting products or services based on the integration of both types of preferences. Driver and Clarke (2008), on the other hand, point out that most research related to mobile, context-aware activity scheduling to date has focused on tourist guide applications. This type of application provides the user with a static tour on a mobile device, but does not support dynamic and context-based trail management. An application framework comprising trail generation and trail reconfiguration point identification modules is then proposed for managing mobile and context-aware trails. As can be seen, although there are several previous works addressing the design and implementation issues for delivering personalized and/or location-based tourism services, only partial solutions to the targeted context and location aware personalized tour planning and recommendation services have been provided. For efficiently and effectively integrating personalized and location aware information to support the recommendation and rescheduling of personalized tour plans, the need of an application framework and development method for directing and facilitating the service system design, implementation, and operation processes is still significant, and more in-depth exploration into this topic is required.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 12. i n U. v.

(21) Chapter 3. Research Method for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Classification. There are three research stages for generating B2C mobile tourism service classification, including B2C mobile tourism service identification, B2C mobile tourism service classification, and B2C mobile tourism service evaluation. Different research methods are used for different research stages, including literature reviews & investigation on practical B2C mobile tourism services, seven semi-structured group interviews with fifty-six students and three surveys. In the first step, B2C mobile tourism services are identified and a B2C mobile tourism service classification framework is constructed from previous research and existing B2C mobile tourism services. In the second step, semi-structured group interviews are conducted to modify and validate the proposed B2C mobile tourism service classification framework as well as associated B2C mobile tourism services, and to discuss the wordings of each item in the survey questionnaire. In the third step, three surveys are conducted to investigate different stakeholders’ opinions toward the proposed B2C mobile tourism services. Target samples include tourists, 3G operators, and travel agencies. One on-line survey is to uncover the usefulness of the proposed B2C mobile tourism services from the tourists’ perspectives. Another on-line survey and one mail survey are used to uncover the importance, feasibility and cost/benefit effectiveness of the B2C mobile tourism services from respectively the 3G operators’ and the travel agencies’ perspectives. Survey reliability and validity are assessed, and statistical analysis includes descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and difference analysis.. 政治大. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Nat. y. sit. n. al. er. io. In the following sub-sections, the research method for B2C mobile tourism service identification is introduced in section 3.1. Research method for B2C mobile tourism service classification is presented in section 3.2, and followed by research method for B2C mobile tourism service evaluation presented in section 3.3.. 3.1. i n U. C. v. e n gB2C Research Method hfor c h i Mobile Tourism Service Identification. During stage 1, the aim was to develop an initial mobile tourism service list and service classification framework of B2C mobile tourism services by taking results from literature reviews and existing mobile tourism services. To ensure developing a comprehensive list of B2C mobile tourism services, a broad range of previous studies were reviewed. Existing B2C mobile tourism services provided by 3G operators and travel industry (e.g. travel agency and airline) were also investigated. In this study, the B2C mobile tourism services were mobile services to help tourists to deal with tour-related information and decision during pre-trip, on-site, and post-trip periods. These included B2C mobile tourism services such as safety-related notification via mobile devices and mobile tour plan recommendation services. Based on the literature review and investigation of practical B2C mobile tourism services, an initial list of B2C mobile tourism services and an initial B2C mobile tourism service classification framework were developed in this stage. 13.

(22) Examples of the B2C mobile tourism services are as follows. Tourists have friend locator needs via mobile devices. Mobile tourism services provide real-time information about road conditions, weather forecasts, events changes, and flight delays, etc. Budget travelling tourists can hook to mobile tourism community to ask for the comments of nearby vegetarian restaurants or share the latest tour news via mobile devices. Tourists can also use theme-based, multimedia supported, interactive, personalized mobile tour guides to seize indoor and outdoor learning opportunities like museum exhibition guidance or bird watching activities during the trips. Mobile tourism services also offer recommendations on restaurants, events, sightseeing spots, hotels, transportation options, direction instructions, souvenirs, and tour plans, etc. Mobile tourism services allow tourists to initiate auctions, book, and pay for last-minute trips, train tickets, car rentals, and hotel reservations. Finally, mobile wallet services and mobile credit card services are added to the initial list of the B2C mobile tourism services based on the investigation of practical B2C mobile tourism services. Based on the literature reviews and investigations of practical B2C mobile tourism services, the initial list of B2C mobile tourism services contains twenty mobile services, including safety-related information services, road condition & weather report services, event schedule change notification services, tour information inquiry services, tour information sharing services, people tracking services, interactive mobile guide services, theme-based mobile guide services, hotel recommendation services, sightseeing recommendation services, restaurant recommendation services, tour plan recommendation services, tour route recommendation services, souvenir store recommendation services, mobile auction services, mobile reverse auction services, mobile booking services, mobile wallet services, mobile credit card services, and mobile ticketing services.. 政治大. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Tourism. y. Mobile. n. al. B2C. er. io. Research Method Classification. sit. Nat. 3.2. i n U. v. Service. During stage 2, the aim was to classify the initial list of B2C mobile tourism services into the B2C mobile tourism service classification framework through semi-structured group interviews. The participants of the semi-structured group interviews were asked to validate the proposed B2C mobile tourism services, to discover and identify more potentially useful B2C mobile tourism services, to discuss the wordings of each item in the questionnaire, and to classify the B2C mobile tourism services. The sample population of the semi-structured group interviews was people who had domestic and/or oversea travelling experiences and better with full-time working experiences. Research intention was announced in three classes including one daily class, one night class, and one weekend class. Students of the night class and weekend classes had full-time jobs during weekdays. Interested groups with four to six people were encouraged to schedule the group interviews. Invitation emails stating our research purpose of the B2C mobile tourism service study along with the semi-structured group interview procedures and questions as attachments were sent to the participants before the semi-structured group interviews. Tape recording of the semi-structured group interviews for research purpose only was clearly stated in advance in the invitation emails. The participants were ensured that there was no individual information shown in our final report. Only summary of the discussions were reported. This study also ensured that the confidential tape-recordings would not be released.. Ch. engchi. 14.

(23) We conducted seven semi-structured group interviews with total fifty-six interviewees. Each lasted about one and half hours with two to ten people each time. The respondents were encouraged to speak freely about the topic. The interviews were carried out after classes at student cafeteria or classrooms where each respondent could see each other and felt free to talk. During the semi-structured group interviews, the purpose of this study along with the concept of B2C mobile tourism services as well as the concept of B2C mobile tourism service classification framework was introduced to the participants. Then, the proposed B2C mobile tourism services were presented and discussed. The participants were encouraged to provide comments about the initial B2C mobile tourism services, to propose interesting B2C mobile tourism services, to eliminate unwanted B2C mobile tourism services, to integrate similar items, to validate the descriptions of each B2C mobile tourism service, and to group the proposed B2C mobile tourism services into B2C mobile tourism service classification framework. The discussions were taped and summaries were confirmed by the respondents. Based on the discussions of the semi-structured group interviews, we made several modifications to the initial list of B2C mobile tourism services. First, people tracking services were deleted because most tourists were concerned with the privacy issues. Secondly, mobile wallet services and mobile credit card services were integrated as mobile payment services because these two B2C mobile tourism services sounded similar from tourist perspectives. The tourists were insensitive to the underlying technique differences between mobile wallet services and mobile credit card services. Thirdly, the participants added three B2C mobile tourism services including major pre-trip information notification services, the reminder services, and the pre-recorded mobile guide services. Participants stated that short messages were useful for pre-trip notification and reminding. For example, destination typhoon news were sent to the tourists whose tour plans might be affected. Not all tourists had email addresses, and it would be effective to get short message notification for affected tours. Some participants mentioned that it was useful service to send short messages to remind tourists of the flight booking codes the day before departure or to send weather forecasts along with the hotel reservation numbers before check-in day. Some participants suggested add the pre-recorded mobile guide services to the list because they were simple and useful services. Finally, the revised list contained twenty-one B2C mobile tourism services, shown in Table 1, and the wordings were validated by all participants.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. During the semi-structured group interviews, the initial B2C mobile tourism service classification framework was also discussed. The revised list of B2C mobile tourism services were grouped into six B2C mobile tourism services and the group interviewees helped to finalize the revised B2C mobile tourism service classification framework. To support the integrated requirements of B2C mobile tourism services, the proposed B2C mobile tourism service classification framework consists of six B2C mobile tourism services including the mobile search & notification services, the mobile community services, the mobile guide services, the mobile recommendation services, mobile auction services, and the mobile transaction & payment services. Figure 9 presents our B2C mobile tourism service classification framework and detailed descriptions of each B2C mobile tourism service are as follows.. 15.

(24) Table 1. Revised List of B2C Mobile Tourism Services No Mobile Tourism Service 1 Safety-related information services 2 Road condition & weather report services. 7 8. 10. io. 13. Nat. 12. ‧. 11. 學. 9. 立. 政治大. y. 6. sit. 5. n. al. er. 4. Berger, Lehmann, and Lehner, 2003; Hinze and Voisard, 2003; Kakaletris et al., 2004 ; Proll and Retschitzegger, 200; Yeo and Huang, 2003; Yu, 2005 Event schedule change Berger, Lehmann, and Lehner, 2003; Cheverst et al., 2000; notification services Hinze and Voisard, 2003; Kakaletris et al., 2004; Yeo and Huang, 2003; Yu, 2005 Major pre-trip information Destination typhoon news are sent to the tourists whose services (Added) tour plans may be affected. Reminder services (Added) Flight booking information is sent to the tourists the day before departure. Tour information inquiry Aschoff and Novak, 2008; Axup and Viller, 2005; Nielsen, services 2004 Tour information sharing Aschoff and Novak, 2008; Axup and Viller, 2005; Nielsen, services 2004 Pre-recorded mobile guide Simple and useful services services (Added) Interactive mobile guide Abowd et al., 1997; Alfaro et al., 2004; Cabrera et al., services 2005; Chen, Kao, and Sheu, 2003; Cheverst et al., 2000 Theme-based video and Alfaro et al., 2004; Cabrera et al., 2005; Chen, Kao, and audio services Sheu, 2003 Hotel recommendation Berger, Lehmann, and Lehner, 2003; Cheverst et al., services 2000l; Nielsen, 2004; Yu, 2005 Sightseeing Ardissono et al., 2003; Berger, Lehmann, and Lehner, recommendation services 2003; Cheverst et al., 2000l; Nielsen, 2004; Yu, 2005 Restaurant Berger, Lehmann, and Lehner, 2003; Cheverst et al., 2000; recommendation services Nielsen, 2004; Yu, 2005 Tour plan recommendation Bellotti et al., 2008; Berger, Lehmann, and Lehner, 2003; services Castillo et al., 2008; Cheverst et al., 2000; Nielsen, 2004; Pousman et al., 2004; Yu, 2005 Tour route Chiu et al., 2009 recommendation services Souvenir store Nielsen, 2004 recommendation services Mobile auction services Ortiz et al., 2001; Tsamakos, Giaglis, and Kourouthanassis, 2002 Mobile reverse auction Ortiz et al., 2001; Tsamakos, Giaglis, and services Kourouthanassis, 2002 Mobile booking services Cheverst et al., 2000; Yu, 2005 Mobile payment services Lukkari, Korhonen, and Ojala, 2004; Ondrus and Pigneur, 2006; Yu, 2005 Mobile ticketing services Goto and Kambayashi, 2003; Mallat et al., 2006. ‧ 國. 3. References/Comments from Group Interviews Proll and Retschitzegger, 2000. 14. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. Ch. engchi. 16. i n U. v.

(25) 政治大. Figure 9. B2C Mobile Tourism Service Classification Framework. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Mobile Search & Notification Services (NOTI). ‧. Services in this group allow tourists to create and maintain their personal notification preferences, including the notification types, duration, and frequency, etc. Tourists may search for festival information by themselves via mobile devices. Tourists may also specify their personalized preferences and opt in the mobile notification services. Based on tourists’ requests and preferences, this group of B2C mobile tourism services provides auto-pushed & tourist-preferred travel information such as traffic condition, weather forecast, snow slide warning, earthquake warning, typhoon warning, festival event schedule change notification, flight schedule change notification, pre-trip tour warning notification, and flight booking number reminder message, etc via mobile devices. The push mechanism enables the service providers to send relevant information to the tourists without having to wait for information requests. Safety-related information services (NOTI1), road condition & weather report services (NOTI2), event schedule change notification services (NOTI3), major pre-trip information services (NOTI4), and reminder services (NOTI5) are typical examples.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Mobile Community Services (COM) This group of B2C mobile tourism services allows tourists to have real-time tour information exchange from the tourism community based on the tourist current location. For example, tourists may inquiry general travel advices like nearby accommodation suggestions or post today’s houses sharing information in a tourism community via mobile devices. The mobile tourism community provides higher quality information than Web-based tourism community because the location information is used to index travel related information and therefore provide more relevant information. Thus, the tour information inquiry services (COM1) and the tour information sharing services (COM2) are major services of the mobile community services. 17.

(26) Mobile Guide Services (GUIDE) This group of B2C mobile tourism services allows tourists to enjoy interactive and theme-based mobile tour guide services by choosing what they want to visit with their own interests and paces. Research has proven that tourists are interested in using the mobile guide services for their knowledge enhancement. For example, tourists benefit from the mobile guide services in bird watching activities. As for indoor activities, different tourists are interested in different themes in a museum environment. Some tourists are interested in painting while some others are interested in jades and rare documents. A theme-based mobile guide services make the museum guidance more personalized as different tourists may choose different topics with different routes and enjoy their own guidance tours. The mobile guide services include pre-recorded mobile guide services (GUIDE1), interactive mobile guide services (GUIDE2), and theme-based video and audio mobile guide services (GUIDE3).. Mobile Recommendation Services (RECOM). 政治大. Using the mobile recommendation services in this group, tourists may first specify what kind of tour recommendations they want by clicking the corresponding functions. They input their preferences by choosing the desired radio buttons or check boxes through an input screen within mobile devices, and then activate the recommendation processes by clicking the submit button. The results are personalized tour recommendations based on tourist profiles and preferences. Tourists often encounter problems with where to go and what to do in the limited time; the mobile recommendation services response to these needs by recommending hotels (RECOM1), sightseeing (RECOM2), restaurants (RECOM3), tour plans (RECOM4), tour routes (RECOM5), souvenir stores (RECOM6), etc.. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. y. Nat. io. sit. Mobile Auction Services (AUC). n. al. er. This group of mobile tourism services provides the tourists with last-minute offers for hotel reservations via mobile devices. For example, a group of tourists are notified about nearby festival activities tomorrow and decide to stay overnight. With the mobile auction services (AUC1), tourists may search the last-minute hotel offers and see if there is any vacancy. If the tourists have dogs and they are interested in houses with a large yard, they may launch the mobile reverse auction services (AUC2) to see if there is any nearby available home-stays with large yards within their budgets.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Mobile Transaction & Payment Services (T&P) The mobile transaction & payment services allow tourists to actually book and pay for the selected tour products or services such as hotel reservation, lunch payment, train ticket purchases, etc via mobile devices. The mobile transaction & payment services include booking/reservation services (T&P1), payment services (T&P2), and ticketing services (T&P3), and they are supporting services for tourism activities.. 18.

(27) 3.3. Research Method for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Evaluation. During stage 3, the aim was to evaluate the revised list of B2C mobile tourism services as well as the proposed B2C mobile tourism service classification framework with multiple perspectives. The sample population was tourists and two key B2C mobile tourism service providers including 3G operators and travel agencies. Three surveys for the B2C mobile tourism service evaluation included an online survey of the tourists, another online survey of the 3G operators, and a mail survey of the travel agencies. The questionnaire was written in Chinese. Prior to the survey was distributed, the wordings of each item in the questionnaire were discussed during the semi-structured group interviews. Moreover, the questionnaire was pre-tested, using a small convenience sample of twenty respondents to detect any logical errors of questions. The survey was lasted for 42 days - from January 11 to February 19, 2007.. 政治大. Taiwan is an appropriate empirical setting for B2C mobile tourism service evaluation surveys from both telecommunication and tourism perspectives. From the telecommunication perspectives, according to the telecommunication figures in 2011 released by National Communications Commission (National Communications Commission, 2012), there are 29 millions mobile phone subscribers, and among them, 20.9 million are 3G subscribers. Among all mobile subscribers, 71.3% are mobile Internet subscribers. That is, the mobile Internet access is highly used by Taiwan residents, which makes Taiwan an appropriate empirical setting for B2C mobile service evaluation survey. From the tourism perspectives, according to the 2010 survey of travel by Taiwan citizens released by the Tourism Bureau (Tourism Bureau, 2011), 93.9% Taiwan citizens take domestic travels, and 20.1% take outbound travels. The average number of domestic trips per person is 6.08 trips while the average number of outbound trips per person is 0.41 trips. That is, most Taiwan citizens have either domestic or outbound travel experience, and it makes Taiwan an appropriate survey site for tourism survey. Based on these two perspectives, we conclude that Taiwan is an appropriate empirical setting for B2C mobile tourism service evaluation survey.. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The first survey was an online survey for Taiwan tourists who had domestic and/or oversea travelling experiences, better with mobile Internet experiences. We chose the convenience sampling method, and the website address of the online B2C mobile tourism service survey was emailed to one class of the part-time college students who had at least one-year full-time working experience, the full-time graduate students of the Department of Management Information Systems, the members of the Information Management Association in Taiwan, and the authors’ personal networks. The respondents were encouraged to forward the online survey to other qualified respondents. There were total 325 effective responses from the tourists. The second survey was another online B2C mobile tourism service survey for the 3G operators. We targeted three major 3G mobile companies, and they were Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan Mobile Co., and Far Eastone Telecommunication Co. We chose the convenience sampling method, and the online survey website address was forwarded to the contact windows of the three companies, and they promised to forward this online survey to their 19.