Digital Platforms in Tourism: A Comparative Analysis of Two Articles

This essay provides a comparative analysis of two articles focusing on the role of digital platforms in the tourism industry. The first article discusses how information and communication technology (ICT) has facilitated the development of platforms connecting people and businesses, emphasizing the shift towards virtual tourism and the importance of peer-to-peer exchange. It highlights the impact of digital platforms on private tourism services, fair competition, and economic development. The second article focuses on the diffusion theory and sectoral innovation within the tourism sector, analyzing the effect of online platform maturity on offline industry efficiency using stochastic and meta-frontier analysis. It discusses how platform maturation, online discount vouchers, and reduced search costs can improve productivity and benefit sellers. The essay also identifies the strengths and weaknesses of both articles, noting the first article's clear explanation of ICT's impact and the second article's use of diffusion theory. Both articles underscore the significant role of information technology in shaping the tourism business and connecting consumers with businesses effectively.

Running head: DIGITAL PLATFORM IN TOURISM
Digital Platform in Tourism
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1DIGITAL PLATFORM IN TOURISM
Modern technology has revolutionised perspective pertaining to the world and it has
created amazing tools along with resources. It has helped in putting useful information at the
finger tip of a person and it has made lives easier for the people. The tourism industry has
been enveloped by digital innovation that can save the business from investing in that of on-
premise infrastructure (Werthner et al. 2015). The first article is named as “Private tourism
services through digital platforms” and the name of the second article is “The effect of online
platform maturity on the efficiency of offline industry”. This essay compares two articles
“Private tourism services through digital platforms” and “The effect of online platform
maturity on the efficiency of offline industry” and elaborates on the similarities and
differences of the two articles.
The major theme of both the articles is regarding how information and
communication technology has facilitated the developing of platforms that can help in
connecting people and the business. The articles talk about how ICT has played a crucial role
in public along with private enterprises that can act as a powerful tool for the management
along with marketing. The first article talks about the tourism companies tapping into the ICT
possibilities and how tourism is more of a virtual as compared to a physical product. It talks
about how the tourism experience becomes tangible towards the end at the time when the
traveller travels (Pesonen, Komppula and Riihinen 2015). The article has talked about how
the airline industry acts as a pioneer pertaining to the development of automated computer
reservation system. The first article talks about how the business to customer service was
facilitated with the help of digital platform that helped in facilitating online reservation for
the tourism sector. The information and communication technology helped in providing many
new opportunities like the use of social media, global positioning service, big data and
artificial intelligence that helped in the development of the tourism sector (Xiang, Magnini
and Fesenmaier 2015).

2DIGITAL PLATFORM IN TOURISM
The second article on the other hand has focussed on the diffusion theory and the sectoral
innovation system in the tourism sector. It has talked about the innovation type pertaining to
tourism and how it can be divided into different components- product, marketing and
managerial. It has talked about how the combination of service and managerial innovation
can help in improving the performance of the hotel in the long run. The second article has
focussed on the effect of platform diffusion on the tourism sector (Kim, Lee and Hwang
2018).
The first article has discussed about the sharing economy that can help in the sharing
of information, goods along with services within peer-to-peer network. It has talked about the
idea of transaction that suggests that the supplier and the user can be considered to be on a
equal plane. It has talked about the open source software that helped in facilitating peer-to-
peer exchange (Braunhofer and Ricci 2017). It has thrown light on how the peer-to-peer
activity has developed various areas of information like accommodation, transport and food.
The first article has talked about how the private person play the role of a supplier who make
use of the private tourism service.
The second article on the other hand has used the stochastic and meta frontier analysis
that can help in exploring relationship between the input and the output pertaining to
production function. The scientific methods have been made use of that has said how one can
get maximum output from that of a given input. The data was collected from a US hotel
industry and it helped in analysing the difference in relation to efficiency pertaining to
diffusion stage of platform. Efficiency in relation to each group was calculated as distance
from that of production function. It has talked about the innovation factor within the music
streaming service that can reap lesser amount of benefit when compared to the tourism sector
(Viglia, Werthner and Buhalis 2016).

3DIGITAL PLATFORM IN TOURISM
The first article has elaborated on the fair competition that can help in maintaining of
a level playing field. It has elaborated on how for avoiding the unfair advantage it was
necessary for the traditional offer to compete under the comparable condition. It was
important to address issues in relation to registration and taxation and existing regulation
failing to fit the private tourism service can cause the transactions to fall within the grey area.
In the event of a digital platform, the consumers are not always protected as the digital
platform does not ensure any kind of guarantees (Ukpabi and Karjaluoto 2017). The first
article has talked about the different aspects like transparency pertaining to information and
non-discrimination policy that should be focussed by the digital platforms. The private
tourism service that is delivered with the help of digital platform can help in boosting the
economic development and providing various kinds of employment opportunities. The
sustainable framework of tourism can have positive effect on the local residents along with
the livelihood of the neighbourhood. The article, “Private Tourism Services through digital
platforms” states that in the event of the growth being fast the tourists start behaving in the
inadequate manner. It can then have an effect on the quality of the life and the residents can
start perceiving tourism in a negative light (Baggio and Del Chiappa 2014).
The second article, “The effect of online platform maturity on the efficiency of offline
industry” on the other hand has focussed on how the improvements pertaining to productivity
of the successful sellers can lead the production function of an industry towards that of meta-
frontier production. The profit of the sellers can increase if the platform can offer buyer
information regarding the seller and the goods. The article has elaborated on how the online
discount voucher can prove to be profitable for that of the sellers (Koo et al. 2015). It talks
about how important it is for the sellers to adapt to platform so that it can improve the
efficiency of their business. The article has talked about how reducing the search cost of the
buyers can with the help of online platform can increase the number of the buyers that can

4DIGITAL PLATFORM IN TOURISM
increase the output of the sellers. It has talked about how the maturation of the platforms can
help in improving the productivity of the tourism industry (Neuhofer, Buhalis and Ladkin
2014).
The strength of the first article, “Private tourism services through platforms” lie in the
fact that it has talked in a sequential manner the changes brought about by information and
communication technology and how the digital platform has affected the tourism industry.
The language of the article is simple that can help in communicating how the digital platform
has been able to influence the private tourism service. The modern age is the age of
collaborative economy and this article has very rightly described how peer-to-peer exchange
can help in delivering service for the tourism industry (Werthner et al. 2015). The first article
has thrown light on what true sharing is and how the exchanges can help in the generation of
economic benefit for an industry. It has elucidated successfully on the true meaning of the
private suppliers in terms of true sharing and the commercial activities carried out by private
person. The weakness of the article is owing to the fact that it has not dealt in an elaborate
manner with any kind of theory in relation to the use of information technology in the tourism
sector.
The strength of the second article lies in the fact that it has talked about the diffusion
theory in relation to the new products that can help in creating interest about the article in
front of the readers. It has talked about the innovations in different fields like process, service
and marketing that can help in making the concept explicit for the person reading the article
(Baggio and Del Chiappa 2014). The strength of the first article is owing to the fact that it has
talked about the three periods that can help in determining the effect in relation to the
efficiency of that of the hotel industry. The gaps in the article is on account of the fact that the
stochastic and meta frontier analysis can seem to be difficult for the readers of the article.

5DIGITAL PLATFORM IN TOURISM
The articles talk about how the information technology can play a significant role in
shaping the business. The articles discuss how the digital platform can connect the consumer
with the business in an effective manner. The information technology can help in opening
various kinds of opportunities like social media and the artificial intelligence that can greatly
benefit the tourism sector. The first article has thrown light on how the business to the
customer service can be carried out by taking recourse to digital platform. The second article
has brought out how productivity in relation to successful sellers can turn the production
function in the direction of meta-frontier production. It has brought out how online discount
voucher can act to the advantage of the sellers and how being adapted to platform can help in
improving efficiency in relation to a business.

6DIGITAL PLATFORM IN TOURISM
References:
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contextual situation detected when the user experienced the item. In fact, many contextual
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Kim, H., Lee, D. and Hwang, J., 2018. The effect of online platform maturity on the
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7DIGITAL PLATFORM IN TOURISM
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