Understanding collaborative tourism information searching to support online travel planning
| Pages | 369-386 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-05-2017-0141 |
| Date | 10 June 2019 |
| Published date | 10 June 2019 |
| Author | Abu Shamim Mohammad Arif,Jia Tina Du |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
Understanding collaborative
tourism information searching to
support online travel planning
Abu Shamim Mohammad Arif
Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh and
University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, and
Jia Tina Du
University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –Collaborative information searching is common for people when planning their group trip.
However, little research has explored how tourists collaborate during information search. Existing tourism
Web portals or search engines rarely support tourists’collaborative information search activities. Taking
advantage of previous studies of collaborative tourism information search behavior, in the current paper the
purpose of this paper is to propose the design of a collaborative search system collaborative tourism
information search (ColTIS) to support online information search and travel planning.
Design/methodology/approach –ColTIS was evaluated and comparedwithGoogleTalk-embedded
Tripadvisor.com through a user study involving 18 pairs of participants. The data included pre- and post-search
questionnaires, web search logs and chat history. For quantitative measurement, statistical analysis was performed
using SPSS; for log data and the qualitative feedback from participants, the content analysis was employed.
Findings –Results suggest that collaborative query formulation, division of search tasks, chatting and
results sharing are important means to facilitate tourists’collaborative search. ColTIS was found to
outperform Tripadvisor significantly regarding the ease of use, collaborative support and system usefulness.
Originality/value –The innovation of the study lies in the development of an integrated real-time
collaborative tourism information search system with unique features. These features include collaborative
query reformulation, travel planner and automatic result and query sharing that assist multiple people search
for holiday information together. For system designers and tourism practitioners, implications are provided.
Keywords User study, Collaborative information seeking, System design, Tourism information search
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Collaborative information searching (CIS) refers to the process of more than one person
searching for information in collaboration with others to achieve a shared goal (Hansen and
Järvelin, 2005; Shah et al., 2017). Collaborative search is a common practice of tourists as
they planning for a group trip (Morris, 2008; Reddy et al., 2008; Imazu et al., 2011;
Mohammad Arif et al., 2015). Werthner et al. (2015) outlined the tourism and technology
research agenda and research at the group level is identified as one of the priorities.
Collaborative tourism information search is believed to be a multi-stage process which
encompasses stages of collaborative planning, CIS, sharing of information and collaborative
decision making (Mohammad Arif et al., 2015). Collaborative search, involving information
gathering, sense making and information sharing, has emerged as one of the important
activities in tourism information seeking (Brown and Chalmers, 2003; Prestipino, 2004;
Morris, 2008). This activity, however, is either inadequately studied or supported by
existing systems and it requires further investigation.
Tourism has been a successful application of web technologies as a significant proportion of
travel information is searched and booked over th e internet (Sandoval, 2001). A CIS technology
can provide a group of tourists with access to online services for searching information,
interacting with each other for sharing information and taking decisions. Of interest, a
collaborative search system can be a potential for services to support tourists’CIS activities.
Online Information Review
Vol. 43 No. 3, 2019
pp. 369-386
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-05-2017-0141
Received 3 May 2017
Revised 23 August 2017
13 January 2018
Accepted 12 October 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
369
Collaborative
tourism
information
Notwithstanding, the research on CIS systems in tourism domain has received less attention in
the research community. Collaborative search tools may facilitate labor division in group
activities, enhance individual contributions to the common goal and increase awareness during
collaboration (Kelly and Payne, 2014). Like-minded tourists desire to collaborate during
information searching but such desire lacks of support by existing tools (Prestipino, 2004;
Naderi andRumpler, 2010). As such,the design of an effective CIS toolis a prominent research
agenda in collaborative search (Shah et al., 2009).
The study reported in this paper investigates the role of collaborationin tourism information
search when multiple tourists plan for a group trip. We conducted two prior user studies on
collaborative tourism information search behavior that have identified collaborative tourism
information search needs, strategies and practices of travelers. The key findings of the user
studies are reviewed in the literature review section. Informed by the findings of these studies
and to gain better insight into tourists’experiences in CIS, we developed a pilot CIS tool, ColTIS,
which is presented and discussed in the current paper. We also present the results of an
evaluation on collaborative tourism information search (ColTIS) search utility by comparing
with an existing tourism web portal. The evaluation shows the embedded collaborative features
would improve tourists’collaborative information search and travel planning experiences.
This study makes the following contributions: it depicts the evolving design of a collaborative
tool which enables direct collaboration between a group of tourists in searching for tourism
information. ColTIS contributes in extending current Web search tools by providing support for
a group of people who know each other, enabling them to collaborate on the search process
(i.e. formulating and sharing queries, chatting, exchanging opinions) and search results
(i.e. sharing results, providing feedback, making decision with the results). Through the
grounded discovery, there will be a better chance of creating supports that fit the tasks and
obstacles tourists regularly face and the help they expect during CIS.
Related work
Definition of CIS
Researchers have defined CIS in a variety of ways based on the scope of a certain context.
For instance, Poltrock et al. (2003) defined CIS in design teams as activities that a group of
people identify and solve toward a common information need. CIS has been conceptualized
as the study of systems and practices enabling individuals to collaborate during the
searching of information (Foster, 2006). In another definition, Hansen and Järvelin (2005)
considered CIS as collaborative activities in information seeking and retrieval processes
within the patent domain, which was related to a specific problem solving activity and
involving human beings interacting with other human(s). Paul and Reddy (2010) argued
thatCISinahospitalemergencydepartment included not only information seeking but
also planning, sharing, sense making and using information in collaboration. In the
current study, we addressed Paul and Reddy (2010)’s CIS concept which covers a broader
set of activities, for example, from travel planning to decision making in tourism context.
Tourism information search and e-tourism
Travelers collect and review information to avoid the risk of taking poor decisions.
The internet has become a dominant tool to bring tourism information to customers.
Fesenmaier et al. (2011) proposed a three-stage model for examining how travelers used
search engines and how different aspects of online travel planning process shaped this use.
Xiang et al. (2014) assessed how travelers adapted to the internet over time in their travel
planning. Several changes were identified in tourists’online trip planning activities; these
included the pattern of internet usage, the capability to adapt to the internet, the search
pattern for tourism products on the internet, the ability of using offline sources, the use of
social media and the incorporation of mobile technology.
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