Interpreting Tourist Experiences from First-Person Stories: A Foundation for Mobile Guides

Abstract

This netnographic study explores first-person stories from online personal travel reports to gain an understanding of tourist experiences. This study uses these stories in order to model tourist spatiotemporal movement at the destination within the context of their tourist-activated networks. The stories provide information about the behavior of tourists on the move with respect to their problems, critical moments, information needs, knowledge gain, and the perceived value of overall travel experiences. The results offer several implications are drawn for designing mobile technology that enhance tourist experiences. This study contributes to the practical and theoretical development of tourism and information systems in two ways. First, this study shows that online communities such as travel journals can be used as reliable sources of tourist behavior. Second, the results of this study support further development of a theoretical framework for designing mobile technology that supports the traveler experience.