Christian Maurer

• Prof. (FH) Mag.
• Head of Department at IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems

Tourists need information about destinations for travel decision making. Thus the importance of information in the tourism industry is apparent. Tourists inform themselves before and during travelling, gather information about prices, hotels, sights, activities, alternatives, weather conditions, local traditions, food, drinks and religious views of...

Many communities in rural and mountainous areas are facing challenges, including unemployment, depopulation, environmental degradation and social problems. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), rural tourism plays an important role in rural development, as it offers an opportunity for income generation, job creation (Sharpley, 2002) an...

The internet and social media play a major role as information sources for tourists and travellers in the travel decision making process. Since the tourism product is intangible, travellers have to rely on images and descriptions regarding travel products and services. Images are subconsciously more influencing than text. Therefore, online photo sh...

Based on the fact that information is nowadays commonly spread by means of digital media, poor access to any kind of digital information and communication technology can cause severe information gaps. Based on a literature review as well as expert interviews, this article assesses the phenomenon of the global digital divide, various reasons for the...

Based on the fact that information is nowadays commonly spread by means of digital media, poor access to any kind of digital information and communication technology can provoke severe information gaps. This paper aims at evaluating the impacts of the global digital divide on the tourism industry, taking into account various definitions and present...

Social network sites like Facebook, MySpace and StudiVZ have recently gained enormous popularity for marketing communications. Facebook especially describes itself as the perfect marketing tool because its developers have created an advertising system which allows businesses to use the information of each Facebook user for targeted advertising. Des...

On travel review platforms, tourists can share their holiday experiences with the global community. In case of critical experiences, consumers can use online reviews as a further channel to articulate their complaints. Through Web 2.0, negative word-of-mouth is spread to a progressively larger audience with the instant of a mouse click. Therefore,...