Big Data for Measuring the Impact of Tourism Economic Development Programmes: A Process and Quality Criteria Framework for Using Big Data

Abstract

Big data revolutionalise the way organisations measure their performance and subsequently how they work. Technological advances allow organisations to access more data than they know how to handle and translate into value. However, although the literature has started investigating the use of big data for generating economic value, there has been a lack of research into the use of big data for delivering social value. To address these gaps, this chapter reviewed the related literature, in order to assist economic development agencies on integrating and using big data into their decision-making process and work related to the management of tourism economic development programs. To that end, the chapter develops and discusses a process framework for implementing big data initiatives and a decision framework for selecting and evaluating big data sources. The framework identifies four criteria for evaluating and selecting big data sources namely: need, value, time and utility. The implications of this framework for future research are discussed