E tourism

www.sti-innsbruck.at© Copyright 2008 STI INNSBRUCK www.sti-innsbruck.at

Semantic Enabled

Carmen Brenner, Dieter Fensel, Michael Fried, Jennifer Kaiser, Birgit Leiter, and

Ioannis Stavrakantonakis

www.sti-innsbruck.at

Application Field eTourism

Overview

1. Facts and Figures on Tourism in Austria and Tyrol

2. Multi-channel communication (MCC)

3. MCC and yield management (YM)

4. MCC, YM, LOD, and service integration on-the-fly as-you-go

5. The value proposition in eTourism

6. Summary

2


Facts and Figures on Tourism in Austria and Tyrol

• Number of accomodations in Austria (http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/tourism/accommodation/accommodation_capacity/034896.html)

– Commercial 20.000

– Private 50.000

• Number of bedplaces winter/summer: 1 Mio. (http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/tourism/accommodation/accommodation_capacity/034896.html)

• Intensity of tourism supply (beds per 1.000 inhabitants) (http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/tourism/accommodation/accommodation_capacity/060644.html)

– Total winter 119 (447 in Tyrol)

– Total summer 124 (467 in Tyrol)

3

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/tourism/accommodation/accommodation_capacity/034896.html




• Total overnight stays 126 Mio (42,7 Mio in Tyrol) (http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/tourism/accommodation/arrivals_overnight_stays/029044.html)

• Travel intensity per inhabitant (number of overnight stays divided by the

resident population): Total 16 (63 in Tyrol)(http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/tourism/accommodation/arrivals_overnight_stays/028972.html)

• Direct employment in tourism: Total 307.000(http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/tourismus/tourismus-satellitenkonto/erwerbstaetige/019852.html)

• Direct spendings of foreign and resident visitors: 30.586.000.000 €(http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/tourismus/tourismus-satellitenkonto/wertschoepfung/019849.html)

• Direct percentage of overall GDP through tourism: 7.4%(http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/tourismus/tourismus-satellitenkonto/wertschoepfung/019848.html)


4

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/tourism/accommodation/arrivals_overnight_stays/029044.html

http://www.statistik.at/web_en/statistics/tourism/accommodation/arrivals_overnight_stays/028972.html

http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/tourismus/tourismus-satellitenkonto/erwerbstaetige/019852.html

http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/tourismus/tourismus-satellitenkonto/wertschoepfung/019849.html

http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/tourismus/tourismus-satellitenkonto/wertschoepfung/019848.html



5

source: http://www.tnooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/four-pillars-FULLjpg.jpg

http://www.tnooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/four-pillars-FULLjpg.jpg



Overview






6. Summary

6


Obstacles of Multichannel Communication

Exponential growth of Online Communication Channels

7




Communication is becoming bi-directional

8




Communication is becoming bi-directional

Contents of communication are becoming more and

more granular

9


The Crazy Hotelier

10

HOTEL RECEPTION

The Hotelier of today has to deal with many different communication channels:


The Crazy Hotelier

11

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customerThe Hotelier of today has to deal with many different communication channels:


The Crazy Hotelier

12

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone



The Crazy Hotelier

13

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email



The Crazy Hotelier

14

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax



The Crazy Hotelier

15

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website



The Crazy Hotelier

16

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website

- review sites



The Crazy Hotelier

17

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website

- review sites

- booking sites



The Crazy Hotelier

18

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website

- review sites

- booking sites

- social network sites



The Crazy Hotelier

19

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website

- review sites

- booking sites


- blogs



The Crazy Hotelier

20

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website

- review sites

- booking sites


- blogs

- fora & destination sites



The Crazy Hotelier

21

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website

- review sites

- booking sites


- blogs


- chat



The Crazy Hotelier

22

HOTEL RECEPTION

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website

- review sites

- booking sites


- blogs


- chat

- video & photo sharing



The Crazy Hotelier

23

HOTEL RECEPTION

The Hotelier doesn’t

only has to deal with an

overwhelming number of

communication

channels, but also has

to pay up to 15% sales

commissions to the

booking sites!


The Crazy Hotelier

24

HOTEL RECEPTION

-> 80 million overnight stays

-> 4 billion € transaction

volume

-> 101 million € sales

commission


Efficient and Effective Online Communication

• Solve these obstacles by mechanizing important aspects of these tasks,

and therefore offer a scalable, cost-sensitive, and effective online

dissemination solution.

• Introduce a layer on top of the various internet based communication

channels that is domain specific and not channel specific.

25

Information modeldefines the type of information items in the domain

Channel modeldescribes the various channels, the interaction

pattern, and their target groups

Weavermappings of information items to channels


Channel Model

Information Model

The three pillars of Online Communication

Branch specific concepts

Collect feedback

+

statistics

Web 3.0/Mobile/OtherWeb/Blog

Distribute content

Social Web

Weaver

26


Information model

The information model defines the type of information items in the touristic

domain.

The domain ontology has following features:

• Ability to map as many business entities as possible

• Meaningful information for LOD exposure

• Compatible with Good Relations and schema.org for SEO

27


Tourism Ontology

28


Example hotel information item acco:Hotel

gr:name: Hotel Rotes Wildschwein

gr:description: Romantik Wellness Hotel in the

Tyrolean Mountains

schema:geo: 47° 16' 0" North, 11° 24' 0" East

acco:size: 56 (rooms)

acco:occupancy: 98 (persons)

acco:occupancyAdults: 95 (adults)

acco:occupancyInfants: 3 (infants)

acco:petsAllowed: yes

29


Using the information model for tourism

30

The hotel’s perspective:

www.sti-innsbruck.at 31

The customer’s perspective:

Using the information model for tourism


Channel model

The channel model describes the different channels, their interaction patterns

and the target groups.

• Channels can be

– online or offline

– for broadcasting or sharing

– for group communication or collaboration

– of static or dynamic information

• The number of different channels is growing constantly

• The target groups are very different from channel to channel

32


Offline and Online Channels

• Walk-in customer

• Telephone

• Email

• Fax

• Hotel website

• Review sites

• Booking sites

• Social network sites

• Blogs

• Fora & destination sites

• Chat

• Video & photo sharing

33


Channels

• Hotel website

– Direct booking (crucial for a successful hotelier)

– Content management system

– Full control and ownership of data

– Integration of social networks via like buttons, widgets, etc.

• Email newsletters

– Still a major means of marketing

– Especially in tourism

– Mostly for existing customers and not customer aquisition

34


Channels

• Booking and Review Sites

– Customers book over these channels

– Customers can express positive as well as negative views

– Quick reactions are important

– Examples

• Holidaycheck

• tripadvisor

• hotelkritiken.de

• zoover

• trivago

• ciao.de

• Votello

• TrustYou

• Hostelworld.com

• Caribbean Style

• Check my stay

• Cosmotourist

• Cruise Critic

• Global Hotel Review

35

• Profi Hotelempfehlungen

• Real Holiday Reports

• Schiffsbewertungen

• travel-and-guide.de

• Travel Intelligence

• Traveluation

• TripsByTips

• UnserSchiff.de

• Yelp

• ab-in-den-urlaub.de

• Booking.com

• Expedia.de

• hotel.de

• tiscover.com


Channels

• Social Networks

– Highly dependent on the target marketing area

– Varying target groups for different businesses

– Examples

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Google Plus

• 200+ social networks worldwide

• Blogs

– Emerging topics like tumblr

– Often businesses enrich their classical online presence with an additional blog

36


Weaver

The weaver is responsible for mapping of information items to the appropriate

channels.

• Separation of content and communication channels

• Reuse of the same content for various dissemination means

• Explicit alignment of information items and channels

37


Weaver component

Elements 1 to 3 are about the content. They define the actual categories, the agent

responsible for them, and the process of interacting with this agent.

1. Information item

It defines an information category that should be disseminated through

various channels.

2. Editor

The editor defines the agent that is responsible for providing the content of an

information item.

3. Interaction protocol

This defines the interaction protocol governing how an editor collects the

content.

38

The details of the Weaver


Weaver

39

Elements 4 to 9 are about the dissemination of these items.

4. Information type

An instance of a concept, a set of instances of a concept (i.e., an

extensional definition of the concept), or a concept description (i.e., an

intentional definition of a concept).

5. Processing rule

These rules govern how the content is processed to fit a channel. Often

only a subset of the overall information item fits a certain channel.

6. Channel

The media that is used to disseminate the information.



Weaver

40

7. Scheduling information

Information on how often and in which intervals the dissemination will be

performed which includes temporal constrains over multi-channel

disseminations.

8. Executor

It determines which agent or process is performing the update of a

channel. Such an agent can be a human or a software solution.

9. Executor interaction protocol

It governs the interaction protocol defining how an executer receives its

content.



Weaver Example

Holiday Package

• Target group: families

• Content: text and pictures

Item: holiday_package

Editor: Hotelier

Type: Concept Description

Channel:

homepage/packages

Schedule Constraint:

date > current date

Executor: Drupal (CMS)

Executor Interaction Protocol:

none

41


Weaver Example

42

Weaver

Concepts

Channels

Holiday package

Theater -weekend

Seminar


More Weaver Examples

Theater Weekend

• Target group: senior couples

• Content: text, pictures, video

Conference

• Target group: business audience

• Content: text and pictures

43


Weaver Example

44

Weaver

Concepts

Channels

Holiday package

Theater -weekend

Seminar


Weaver Example

45

Weaver

Concepts

Channels

Holiday package

Theater -weekend

Seminar


Hotel Rotes Wildschwein

46

Homepage

http://www.rotes-wildschwein.at





RSS feed

http://www.rotes-wildschwein.at/rss.xml

47



Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rotes-

Wildschwein/321731534545050

48

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rotes-Wildschwein/321731534545050

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rotes-Wildschwein/321731534545050



Twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/HotelRedBoar

49

https://twitter.com/

https://twitter.com/



Overview






6. Summary

50


Multi-channel booking problem

• Hotels are facing the multi-channel booking problem

• More than 100 different booking channels available

• Daily maintenance of right balance of rooms availability

across more than 100 channels does not scale

• Average time for hoteliers required to maintain a profile of a

medium size hotel at one portal takes between 5 to 15

minutes a day

• An effort of maintaining hotel’s profile on 100 portals would

require then at least 20 hours of work

51


Multi-channel booking solution

• The multi-channel solution for hotel-industry internet

distribution

seekda! connect

seekda! IBE

52


• Automatic support for online booking on multiple channels

• One single entry point providing direct connections to

different booking platforms

• Simple, Web-based user interface for management of

bookings

seekda connect


• Over 4200 accommodation facilities are using sekkda


Direct bookability for hotels

• Booking quickly and directly via hotel Web sites

• Seekda producs for direct bookability:

– Dynamic Shop

– Dynamic Shop Mobile

• Benfits:

– Hotels do not give part of their profit to booking chanells

– Guests spend less time in booking using the instant booking engine solution of

seekda

55


Dynamic Shop integrated in the Hotel website

56


Direct bookability for hotels

• Does the customer find the hotel web site?

• Does the customer trust the web site?

• Are his/her requests properly answered?

• Is his/her feedback taken serious and form a positive review of the hotel?

57


Multi Channel Communication and Yield

Management

• Multi-channel communication tools can improve revenues and benefits

within the hospitality industry by:

– Increasing the on-line visible presence of hotels

– Make hotels offers visible to a broader audience via multiple channels

– Attract potential guests to hotel websites and thus increase direct bookability

– effective and targeted on-line marketing

58


+

= holistic multi channel communication

and yield management for the hotelier

59


Hotelnavigator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rA0wdkPB7gA

60






Overview




4. MCC, YM, LOD, and service integration on-the-flyas-you-go


6. Summary

61


MCC, YM, LOD, and service integration on-the-fly

as-you-go

• Multi-channel communication

• seekda booking engine

• Linked Open Data (LOD) (http://linkeddata.org/)

• On the fly service integration as you pay

• Everything integrated into a comprehensive map

62


Multi-channel communication

- walk-in customer

- telephone

- email

- fax

- hotel website

- review sites

- booking sites


- blogs


- chat

- video & photo sharing

63



Branch specific concepts

Collect feedback

+

statistics

Web 3.0/Mobile/OtherWeb/Blog

Distribute content

Social Web

Weaver

64

SCEI



• Scalable on-line communication tool based on machine processable

semantics, that supports processes such as yield, brand, and reputation

management.

• SCEI is entitled to support the following process:

1. Content creation

2. Selection of publication channels

3. Content adaptation

4. Publication

5. Feedback collection

6. Content detection

7. Impact analysis

65


SCEI

Reference architecture

Semantic

RepositoryContent Management

System

Publication

Workflow Engine/ Communication

patterns

Domain and task specific

interface

Domain and task specific

interface…

Content creator

Engagement Impact

Analysis

SCEI

Workflow

designer

Target users

Media

Monitoring

66


seekda booking engine


seekda booking engine - direct bookability for

hotels

• Booking quickly and directly via

hotel Web sites

• Seekda producs for direct

bookability:

– Dynamic Shop

– Dynamic Shop Mobile

• Benfits:

– Hotels do not give part of their

profit to booking chanells

– You do not loose the guest

having him booking other hotels

68


Linked Open Data (LOD)

• Web of Documents • Web of Data

“Documents”

“Things”

Hyperlinks

Typed Links



LOD Principles:

1. Use URIs as names for things.

2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.

3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful RDF information.

4. Include RDF statements that link to other URIs so that they can discover related

things.



Figure from http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/lodcloud/state/, September 2011

Facts:• 295 data sets• Over 31 billion triples• Over 504 billion RDF links between data sources

http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/lodcloud/state/



• Use LOD to integrate and lookup data

about

– places and routes

– time-tables for public transport

– hiking trails

– ski slopes

– points-of-interest

72


Linked Open Data (LOD) - data sets

• Open Streetmap

• Google Places

• Databases of government

– TIRIS

– DVT

• Tourism & Ticketing association

• IVB (busses and trams)

• OEBB (trains)

• Ärztekammer

• Supermarket chains: listing of products

• Hofer and similar: weekly offers

• ASFINAG: Traffic/Congestion data

• Herold (yellow pages)

• City archive

• Museums/Zoo

• News sources like TT (Tyrol's major daily newspaper)

• Statistik Austria

• Innsbruck Airport (travel times, airline schedules)

• ZAMG (Weather)

• University of Innsbruck (Curricula, student statistics, study possibilities)

• IKB (electricity, water consumption)

• Entertainment facilities (Stadtcafe, Cinema...)

• Special offers (Groupon)

73


On the fly service intergation as you pay

• Data and services from destination

sites integrated for recommendation

and booking of

– Hotels

– Restaurants

– Cultural and entertainment events

– Sightseeing

– Shops

74



• Solutions for ad-hoc service integration for touristic destination sites

• Two integration approaches:

– via Web scrapping as a quick integration solution

– via APIs and backend integration for a long term, durable solution

75


• Web scraping integration

– Create wrappers for current web sites and extract data automatically

– Many Web scraping tools available on the market


76


• APIs and backend integration

– Contractual based integration of data, functionalities and services for mutual

benefits

– More fine grain integration not only at the level of Web but deeper, at the level of

backend systems

– Requires usually enterprise application integration solutions (e.g. Web services)


77


Everything integrated

• Integration into a comprehensive map of multi-channel communication,

seekda booking engine, Linked Open Data and on the fly service

integration as you pay to generate added value for businesses as well as

customers

• Combination of multi channel communication and yield management

– dacodi

– seekda booking solutions

• enriched with Linked (Open) Data

– Machine understandable interlinked data

– Bike and hiking trails, sight information, etc.

• and on the fly service integration as you pay

– Solutions for ad-hoc service integration for touristic destination sites

– Bike rental, ski passes, etc.

– Services are quickly integrated through scrapping and later through API and

back•end integration

78


Everything integrated: Tourist Map Austria

79

• Based on Open

Street Map



80

• Based on Open

Street Map

• Increase on-line

visibility for hotel and

destination via multi-

channel

communication -

SCEI

SCEI



81

• Based on Open

Street Map




channel

communication -

SCEI

• Hotels, ski passes,

etc. directly bookable

– seekda engine

SCEI



82

• Based on Open

Street Map




channel

communication -

SCEI



– seekda engine

• LOD to integrate and

lookup data about

hiking trails, ski

slopes, etc.

LODSCEI



83

• Based on Open

Street Map




channel

communication -

SCEI



– seekda engine

• LOD to integrate and

lookup data about

hiking trails, ski

slopes, etc.

• On the fly service

integration as you pay

LODSCEI



• Based on Open Street Map

• Fullscreen map with GPS for orientation

– Optimized for tablets and smartphones

• Data control

– Hoteliers, Townships, Assotiations, etc. can easily

maintain their own data

– Integration of public transport (missing in Google maps)

– Direct booking possible

• Social

– Integration of Facebook, Twitter, etc.

– Crowd sourcing of reviews, tips, etc.

– Plan common activities on-site

84

SCEI


LOD

+ +

= independence for the hotelier and

added value for the customer

SCEI

Everything integrated

85



Overview






6. Summary

86


The value proposition in eTourism

87

2 Bio € Business Volume/Year in Tyrol

10% Marketing/

Communication

40%

Accommodation

Costs

15% Booking

Fees

5% Profit 30% Taxes



88

Marketing Accommodation

Costs

Booking

Fees

Profit Taxes

The Problem:



89

Marketing Accommodation

Costs

Booking

Fees

Profit Taxes

The Goal:


3 main fields of activity

• Multi Channel Communication (MCC)

• MCC and Yield Management

• Next Generation Destination Sites

Prevent Black holes in the touristic value proposition!

90


Summary

• Tourism is a main contributor to the Austrian economy (7,4% to overall GDP).

• Exponential growth of Online Communication Channels (trend to bi-directional

communication & granular content).

solution: a scalable, cost-sensitive and effective online dissemination solution (to

distribute content & collect feedback and statistics).

• Information model: defines the type of information items in the domain.

• Channel model: describes the various channels, the interaction pattern and their

target groups.

• Weaver: responsible for mapping of information items to the appropriate channels

– Components: Information item; Editor; Interaction protocol; Information type; Processing rule;

Channel; Scheduling information; Excecution; Excecutor interaction protocol

• Hotels face a multi-channel booking problem (more than 100 booking channels

available) multi channel booking solution: seekda connect

• seekda + dacodi = holistic multi-channel communication and yield management for

the hotelier

91


Summary

• Use LOD to integrate and look up data about:

– Places and routes; Time tables for public transport; hiking trails; ski slopes; POIs

• On the fly service integration as you pay

– Integration via: Web scrapping/API and backend integration

• Goal: Everything integrated!

– Integration into a comprehensive map of multi-channel communication, seekda booking

engine, LOD and on the fly service as you pay to generate added value for businesses

and customers

– seekda + SCEI + LOD = independence for the hotelier and added value for the customer

• The value proposition in eTourism – 2 Bio € Business Value/Year in Tyrol

15% booking fees

Prevent black holes in the touristic value proposition!

92


Thank you for your attention!

93

Presentations & Public Speaking

E tourism