Exploring tourists' collaborative web search : implications for system design

Date

2013

Authors

Mohammad Arif, A.S.
Du, J.T.
Lee, I.

Editors

Ashman, H.
Sheng, Q.Z.
Trotman, A.

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Conference paper

Citation

AWC 2013 Proceedings of the First Australasian Web Conference, 2013 / Ashman, H., Sheng, Q.Z., Trotman, A. (ed./s), pp.49-58

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First Australasian Web Conference (AWC 2013) (29 Jan 2013 - 1 Feb 2013 : Adelaide, Australia)

Abstract

Web searching has increasingly become a prevalent channel for tourists to conduct collaborative search for travelling information. In this paper, we report results of a user study on tourists' collaborative search behaviour on the Web. The study aims to identify the features of collaboration and factors affecting the collaboration while tourists search for tourism information. Data collection techniques included pre- and post-search questionnaires, Web search logs, online chat logs during collaborative search, and post-search interviews. The analysis of search logs and chat logs data reveals the types of information the users exchange during the collaborative search for tourism information which includes Web links, messages related to the travel plan, division of search tasks and sharing of search results. The participants selected different search engines and tourism related websites based on the search task and their needs. The results also provide the contextual factors which influence the collaboration for tourism information are: the budget for the travel, the previous knowledge and the previous visit and the technology. The findings have practical implications for the content and presentation of tourism websites as well as the design of interface that supports online collaborative tourism information searching.

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Copyright 2012 Australian Computer Society. This paper appeared at the 1st Australasian Web Conference (AWC 2013), Adelaide, South Australia, January-February 2013. Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology (CRPIT), Vol. 144. H. Ashman, Q. Z. Sheng and A. Trotman, Eds. Reproduction for academic, not-for profit purposes permitted provided this text is included.

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