Acceptance of Geo-multimedia Applications in Austrian Tourism Organisations

Transcription

1 Acceptance of Geo-multimedia Applications in Austrian Tourism Organisations Kerstin Raggam Alexander Almer Institute of Digital Image Processing Joanneum Research, Austria {kerstin.raggam, Abstract Although nearly all tourism information is also geographically related information, only a few tourism organisations present their offers in a geographical context. The aim of this survey is to examine what relevance geo-multimedia applications have in Austrian tourism organisations. The methodology used is an online survey, which has been ed to tourism organisations throughout Austria. The questionnaire covers issues regarding digital presentation, usage, benefits, relevance and cost estimation for geo-multimedia applications. The survey reveals that only a very small percentage of the participants provides tourism information on a mobile device, that the 2D view is considered to be the most important presentation form of geographical tourism information and that the willingness to pay depends on the medium and on the form of the geo-multimedia application. Keywords: e-tourism, web application, mobile devices, geodata, visualization 1 Introduction Today, tourism information is presented extensively on various analogue media. In the last years digital presentation, particularly on the Internet but also on CD-ROMs and mobile devices has gained increasingly more importance. Digital visualization of tourism information very often was guided by analogue products such as catalogues or brochures. The manifold possibilities of digital media are used to a very small extent, as this is the case with geographical visualizations, although in the very area of outdoor tourism such as hiking or biking, maps are of great relevance. Analogue biking and hiking maps as well as city maps are produced and used in a great number of pieces. When they are processed for the Internet, often a simple map without interactive functionalities or further information is used, even though digital media in particular are of excellent use in the processing of tourism information in a more userfriendly and target-group oriented way. It was the aim of this survey to determine the acceptance and the demand of geomultimedia applications for the presentation of tourism information. The target group of the survey was formed by Austrian tourism organisations and thus it was

2 scrutinized to what extent geo-multimedia visualizations are already being applied for the digital presentation of tourism information and how deeply interested tourism organisations are in using them for the presentation of their regions. Furthermore, the tourism organisations were to be acquainted with the different visualization options. For this purpose it was examined on which digital media Austrian tourism regions present themselves and if, and in what form geodata have already been applied for particular presentations. Therefore, not only Internet presentations but also presentations on CD-ROM and DVD as well as on mobile devices have been examined. Other important concerns were to clarify whether the combination of geodata visualization and multimedia is of relevance to tourism organisations and what cost conceptions they have. 2 Geo-multimedia applications Geo-multimedia tourism information can be visualized by means of digital maps but also with the usage of aerial and satellite image data both two-dimensionally and three-dimensionally and can be processed for all sorts of output media. For 2Dvisualizations digital maps, aerial and satellite images are used. A 3D-visualization requires additionally the integration of digital elevation models. A natural texture derived from aerial and satellite image data may principally be replaced by artificial textures (Almer et al., 2000) D and 3D-view The 2D and 3D-view (Fig. 1) shows tourism information such as biking or hiking tours or sights, which are geo-referenced and stored in a data base. The tours are visualized with curves and the infrastructure is shown with points and symbols. Thus, the user may choose information he really requires, either by selecting particular themes or by gathering information in a well-directed search. The desired information will be presented immediately in its geographical context. Furthermore, the 3D-view of a region shows unlike a 2D-view also the terrain elevation. Fig. 1. 2D-and 3D-view

3 2.2 Real time 3D-model A real time 3D-model as shown in Fig. 2 is realized on the basis of a digital elevation model from which the relevant elevation data are taken. This visualization possibility is particularly appropriate for areas difficult to see. In contrast with the 3D-view all pictures are calculated in real time. This method of visualization is more flexible than the created 2D- or 3D-views, as it offers the user more navigation possibilities. The user may zoom an area, twist the model and change his perspective. Furthermore, also flight paths can be predefined (Schnabel, 2003). Fig. 2. Real time 3D-model 2.3 Virtual flight Virtual overflights (Fig.3) are merely generated on the computer from satellite or aerial images and a digital landscape model. For a flight animation it is necessary to define the flight path and to determine taking angle and flight height along the flight path. For the creation of a virtual flight and depending on its duration some thousand single frames are joined to an animation file. The reproduction is realized with 25 to 30 frames per second (Zeiner et al., 2002). With this form of visualization, the user can not take influence on the displayed objects because virtual flights are reproduced in the video format mpg. Fig. 3. Virtual Flight

4 2.4 Digital presentation media The Internet. The usage of the Internet offers an affordable, flexible and efficient exchange of information between guests and tourism organisations. With an eye to the design of the presentation the Internet offers a variety of possibilities, which in most existing presentations are not even used in part. An examination of 25 tourism information providers referring to German tourism showed clearly that the examined Internet performances barely offered Internet maps and that the possibilities provided by the Internet to integrate multimedia are being used only to a very small extent. The offers provided by the tourism organisations are to match the users' demands. To an increasing extent the Internet is applied for travel planning and booking by prospective guests. Here, also Internet maps play an important role, primarily in general information gathering but as well for detailed route planning (Faby, 2004). CD-ROM and DVD. Unlike the Internet, products on CD-ROM and DVD offer the advantage of no need for access to the Internet, and therefore the presentation does not depend on the band width of the Internet connection. Thus, it does not make sense to present up-to-date information such as events, weather etc. on CD-ROM. CD- ROM-products are useful mainly for large amounts of data and for information that will be up-to-date for a longer term, such as audio and video files, for which the user has to wait a long while on the Internet. Even regarding to data transmission in real time, like the geographical visualization of a region as 2D or 3D-model, the CD-ROM is the most appropriate publication medium. Mobile devices. Mobile information systems offer the possibility of permanent access to information (everywhere and anytime) either for a sightseeing or a hiking tour (see Fig. 4). Concerning the visualization of geographical information they combine the advantages of mobile paper maps with those of versatile and individual designing possibilities of the geomultimedia digital visualization possibilities (Meng & Reichenbacher, 2003). In this context mobile devices comprise Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and smartphones. These devices are multifunctional and may among other things also be used for the reproduction of picture, video and audio files. By means of a GPS-receiver as e. g. a GPS-mouse, location based services may be required as well. Fig. 4. PDA 3 Methodology of the Survey In order to achieve the goals of this survey, mentioned in the introduction, an empirical examination was carried out representing Austrian tourism organisations the target group. Within the framework of the survey this group comprised primarily tourism associations, tourism federations und tourism regions. As a condition, the tourism organisations had to possess an account necessary for the mailing of the online-questionnaire. In addition, not more than hundred organisations of a federal

5 state should be contacted to confine the work expenditure. That is why in federal states with more than hundred tourism organisations those were sorted out, where municipal employees appeared as contact persons, as this fact was determined as indicator for an inferior tourism output. This assumption has been tested with the accounts of important and also small tourism organisations that were known by the authors. The outcome was that in general important tourism organisations had their own tourism accounts, whereas in small tourism organisations the municipality, a municipal employee or an individual were the contact persons. Due to these criteria the contacts established at the beginning were reduced to 611. For the examination the method of written questioning in form of an onlinequestionnaire was chosen. Because of the size of the target group and the necessity of showing the descriptions with pictures, only a written questioning was taken into account. An online-questioning was conducted, because this mode unlike postal questioning supplies results in electronic form and thus may be processed more easily. The online-questionnaire consisted mainly of close-ended questions, whereas most questions had four answer possibilities (important, rather important, rather unimportant and unimportant). The questionnaire was subdivided into six sections, which are listed in detail in Table 1. In the second section no questions were asked, because here the different visualization possibilities were illustrated and briefly described. The complete online-questionnaire can be found in Raggam, Table 1. Structure of the questionnaire Section Introducing questions Geographical visualization of tourism information Online-presentation (Webperformance) Offline-presentation (CD- ROM/DVD) Mobile presentation Final questions Questions Name of the tourism organisation - Form of the tourism organisation Overnight stays per year Share of winter tourism in turnover Relevance of particular target groups 2D View 3D View Real time 3D model Virtual Flight Presentation Visualization of geodata Relevance of tourism information Relevance of geodata Costs of displaying possibilities Presentation Visualization of geodata Relevance of tourism information Relevance of geodata Costs of displaying possibilities Presentation Visualization of geodata Relevance of tourism information- Relevance of geodata Costs of displaying possibilities Level of awareness of application possibilities Advantage of geographical tourism information Relevance of features 4 Results Of the selected 611 tourism organisations 22 could not be contacted because of incorrect addresses. Thus, as a whole 589 Austrian tourism organisations were contacted by . Of these tourism organisations 291 took part in the questioning,

6 and from these 264 questionnaires were classified useable. This signifies that at least one part of the questionnaire (except data concerning the organisation) could be used for the evaluation. This makes a response rate of 44.8%. More than 60% of the participants were tourism federations. Approximately 14% of the tourism organisations were tourism associations and tourism regions. The remaining participants consisted of tourism agencies, municipalities, etc. Referring to the numbers of overnight stays, destinations with fewer than overnight stays per year held the largest share with nearly 40%. Approximately 30% of the participating organisations register between 50,000 and 250,000 overnight stays per year and the same percentage registers more than 250,000 overnight stays per year. 4.1 Digital presentation of tourism information To begin with, it will be shown which digital media Austrian tourism organisations use for the presentation of their offers and which features are of relevance. In addition, it will be ascertained which geo-multimedia visualization techniques tourism organisations are already using. Digital media. The most common form of presentation is the presentation on the Internet. All tourism organisations but one that supplied data concerning this point, present themselves on the Internet. In addition, 30% of the tourism organisations provide information on CD-ROM or DVD and 4% on mobile devices. Features. The meaning of features was examined to find out, which value the possibilities gained by the geo-multimedia presentation have for tourism organisations. Thus, we found out that for 96% of the participants pictures are relevant, followed by the thematic and geographical search option. The integration of video files is of relevance to more than three quarters of the participants, whereas audio files are of relevance to less than half the participants. Application of geo-multimedia visualizations. In this context we asked for the application of displaying possibilities on the Internet, CD-ROM and. DVD as well as on mobile devices. Merely one tourism organisation declared to apply geo-multimedia visualization applications on a mobile device. Concerning the application of geographical visualization possibilities on the Internet and on CD-ROM the number of organisations using these technologies was higher than expected. Of the tourism organisations presented on the Internet, 43% applied at least one visualization possibility in their Internet presentations. Organisations presenting their offers on CD- ROM or DVD, exhibit a percentage of 36% concerning the application of one or more visualization technologies. The 2D-view is most frequently used both on the Internet and on CD-ROM. Referring to the presentation on the Internet the 2D-view registers 73% and thus clearly surpasses the 3D-view, which registers 25%. Virtual overflights as well as interactive

7 3D-models are applied in their Internet presentations of approximately the same number of tourism organisations, i. e. some 15%. Of the tourism organisations presenting their offers on CD-ROM or DVD and applying geodata for their presentations, 58% declared to use the 2D-view on this medium. Another 38% of the participants apply the 3D-view, followed by virtual overflights (31%) and real time 3D-models (27%). The usage of geo-multimedia visualization techniques also varies depending on the average number of overnight stays per year. As shown in Fig. 5 tourism regions with more than overnight stays per year utilize the geo-multimedia visualization techniques most frequently, followed by organisations with to overnight stays and organisations with under overnight stays. Furthermore are the organisations with over overnight stays per year the only ones that use the presented techniques on all media. Fig. 5. Usage of geo-multimedia visualization techniques distributed to media and overnight stays of the regions Due to the result of this questioning, according to which geo-multimedia visualizations are relatively common, and above all in order to examine the comprehensibility of the particular formulations of the questions, the web performances of the examined tourism organisations were analysed. In addition, out of the 95 organisations that expressed in concrete terms which geo-multimedia visualization possibilities they applied on the Internet, 30 were chosen at random. This examination showed that above all concerning the real time 3D-model and the virtual overflight there are misunderstandings. Out of the 13 respectively 12 organisations that declared to dispose of this visualization possibility, only two respectively one tourism organisation actually apply the real time 3D-model and the virtual overflight. In many cases the real time 3D-model was mistaken for a 3D-view and the virtual overflight for a real overflight. But also concerning interactivity, information content and the basic data of the 2D- and 3D-view the Internet performances of the tourism organisations often did not match the here presented

8 visualization possibilities. Consequently, the result concerning the application of geomultimedia visualizations is to be regarded as problematic, because the topic of the questioning was only partly understood in its correct sense. 4.2 The meaning of geo-multimedia visualization possibilities In this section will be investigated into the meaning of the particular visualization possibilities for tourism organisations and the benefits the tourism organisations expect of these visualization possibilities. Finally, it will be questioned, what costs the tourism organisations are ready to pay for the particular visualization possibilities. Relevance of geo-multimedia visualization possibilities. As shown in Fig. 6, the Internet is the most important presentation medium, followed by CD-ROMs and mobile devices. Concerning the geographical visualization possibilities the 2D-view on all presentation media crystallizes clearly as the most important form of visualization. The second place takes the 3D-view, followed by the real time 3Dmodel. The virtual flight is on all presentation media the less relevant geo-multimedia visualization possibility. Solely the 2D-view on the Internet is classified as relevant by a bare majority of the participants, and all the remaining visualization possibilities are of inferior importance to the participants. Fig. 6. Relevance of geo-multimedia visualization possibilities Benefits of the visualization possibilities. We also questioned the benefits concerning the application of geo-multimedia visualization possibilities expected by the tourism organisations. Here, the possible questions ranged from "low" to high. As shown in Fig. 7, most participants (86%) judge the benefits of geographical visualization possibilities highest serving the purpose to give the tourist an idea of the

9 region, followed by the tourist s orientation in the region and a better view of the offers. Referring to customer satisfaction and image improvement, 70% of the organisations judge its benefits high. Barely half the participants expect the region s level of awareness to rise due to the application of geo-multimedia visualization possibilities, and 45% of the questioned expect to gain clients by the application of geographical tourism information. Fig. 7. Benefits of geo-multimedia visualization techniques Cost conceptions of the tourism organisations. For the inquiry into costs we predefined price categories from below 5,000 to above 20,000 euros per visualization possibility. The price area had to be so wide because the actual costs highly depend on the existing geodata base and the digitized tourism data. In addition, the participants could choose the options No idea and Not interested. These two options made it possible to distinguish between tourism organisations that are indecisive concerning geo-multimedia visualization techniques and their costs and tourism organisations which are definitely not interested in using these techniques. To begin with, we asked about the cost conceptions of the tourism organisations concerning the particular geo-multimedia visualizations on the Internet (Fig.8). For the visualization of geographical tourism information on the Internet between 35% and 45% of the participants supplied data concerning prices. As before in Fig. 6 also here we may see that the 2D-view is the most popular visualization possibility, followed by the 3D-view and the real time 3D-model and the virtual overflight. Approx. one third of the participants opted for No idea. Finally, between 26% (2Dview) and 32% (virtual flight) of the questioned organisations showed no interest in the geographical visualization possibilities on the Internet.

10 Concerning the particular visualization possibilities on CD-ROM, 35% of the questioned made a price quotation for the 2D-view, but as for the 3D-view the number of participants prevail who show no interest. With every visualization possibility, one third of the questioned answered with No idea. Looking into the cost conceptions of the participants referring to mobile devices, the tendency towards Not interested is considerably greater than in the media previously discussed. The share of those organisations without interest oscillates here between 43% (2D-view) and 48% (virtual flight). The 2D-view is once again the most popular geographical visualization possibility. For the real time 3D-model the second largest number of cost conceptions is quoted for the 2D-view and not for the 3D-view like for the other media. The share of indecisive tourism organisations totals again approx. one third referring to all visualization possibilities. 5 Conclusion Fig. 8. Relevance of geo-multimedia visualization possibilities Within the framework of this survey the questioned Austrian tourism organisations have demonstrated their priorities concerning geo-multimedia visualization possibilities on digital media. The 2D-view is on every medium clearly the most popular visualization possibility for tourism information, whereas the Internet

11 represents the most important presentation medium. Even though the 2D-view is the very form of visualization on the Internet most tourism organisations have already begun to apply, it is also the form for which the majority of the tourism organisations quote concrete price conceptions. Above all on mobile devices hardly any (geographical) tourism information has been provided so far. Concerning PDAs and particularly smartphones there are, though, continuously new developments. The devices become increasingly more efficient and affordable. Besides, it can be expected that mobile devices will increase their performance and functionality and slowly begin to integrate into each other. As a conclusion we may state that the questioned tourism organisations are principally interested in geographical visualization possibilities as well as in the resulting possibilities (e. g. geographical search), a fact that is demonstrated among other things by the expected benefits and the high response rate within the framework of the survey. Although the expected benefits are relatively high from the point of view of the participants, only the 2D-view on the Internet is actually of relevance to the majority of the participants. In addition, the geographical visualization possibilities presented in this context are of inferior importance above all to tourism organisations with fewer than 50,000 overnight stays per year, due to restricted financial resources. By means of cooperations or linkages to existing tourism regions or federations smaller tourism organisations could as well realize larger projects. But whether the tourism organisations take into account this possibility, is a question that cannot be answered from this survey. References Almer, A. et al. (2000). Interactive Multimedia Information System for Alpine Travel & Tourism Based on Satellite and GIS Data. Final Report. Faby, H. (2004). Individuelle Reisvorbereitung mit Internetkarten: Status quo und Potenziale. In: Kartographische Nachrichten, Heft 1, 54. Jg., 3-9. Meng, L. & Reichenbacher, T. (2003). Von Karten über LBS zu mobilen Geovisualisierungsdienste - Forschungsfragen und Lösungsansätze. Vorgetragen am auf der geodätischen Woche der Intergeo. 16. bis Hamburg. Raggam, K. (2004): Akzeptanz von Geoinformation im e-tourismus Möglichkeiten für den Einsatz von Geodaten und Multimedia in der digitalen Präsentation von österreichischen Tourismusdestinationen. Diplomarbeit, Fachhochschulstudiengänge Burgenland. Schnabel, T. (2003). Dreidimensionale Echtzeit-Visualisierung von Geoinformationen im Internet und auf CD-ROM. Diplomarbeit, FH Joanneum Graz. Zeiner, H. et al. (2002). Vernetzte multimediale Informationssysteme für räumlich, zeitlich und thematisch strukturierte Daten. Projektreport. Joanneum Research.