Are the days of tourist information centers gone? Effects of the ubiquitous information environment

Study results indicate a negative relationship between general Internet usage and demand for tourist information center visitation, and denotes that heavy social media users tend to show more visits to tourist information centers.

Abstract

The advent of on-line and cloud access through mobile devices has led to a reconsideration of the traditional role of tourist information centers. Derived from a sample of Korean domestic tourists, this paper suggests means by which tourist information centers can respond to new demands for travel information. Study results indicate a negative relationship between general Internet usage and demand for tourist information center visitation. Using different econometric models, this study denotes that heavy social media users tend to show more visits to tourist information centers. This finding may be due to the characteristics of social media users and equally implies that the conventional engines of tourism promotion should engage more in social media.