Media Discourse on Big Data and Tourism Attractions in China

Abstract

Increasingly, with the introduction of “smart destination” by the Chinese central government, big data becomes a popular phrase for tourism practitioners with the promise to transform the tourism industry in China by generating better answers to existing and new questions. Excited by the promising benefits of big data, many tourism attraction agencies have started to use big data to re-engineer their traditional business models. These benefits include better prediction models and “smart” management that could result in continuous improvement of various management and marketing strategies. However, nearly an equal number of tourism practitioners in China expressed their growing concerns about the actual benefits big data can bring. This book chapter reviews recent practices of big data and tourism attraction management in China through media discourse. It examines the interaction of tourism attraction management agencies with other stakeholders on the use of big data through a network perspective. By understanding big data’s current practices in China, it aims to paint a clear picture of its development and to help researchers position themselves in the process to identify future research areas, which would ultimately help to harden the potential of big data in tourism.