– Our research makes a valuable contribution to the students’ work in designing places for tourism, where we demonstrate the importance of working with place-based digital development in harmony with places and people, says Lotta Braunerhielm, docent in human geography at Karlstad University.
Geomedia research looks at the relationship between places and media and how they affect each other. The tourism industry, and tourism in general, has in recent years been heavily impacted by digitalisation and development has been primarily technology-driven. To gain a better understanding of the digital development between places and people, Lotta Braunerhielm and Fredrik Hoppstadius, senior lecturer in human geography at Karlstad University, have carried out a literature study covering 2,480 publications.
Fredrik Hoppstadius, how did you go about conducting the study?
– We used two methods. First a quantitative systematic literature review, followed by a qualitative exploratory thematic analysis. Through use of the first method, we gathered data from Scopus and conducted broad searches that included both tourism as a phenomenon and technological aspects of digitalisation. An important perspective of our method is that we have conducted broad searches to also include tourism-related research published in other disciplines. This provides a broader understanding of the research area.
– What makes our study exciting is the combination of the systematic quantitative review with the qualitative exploratory thematic analysis. These two methods highlight different aspects of the research, and we have gained both a broad overview of the research area and a deeper understanding of the themes and patterns present in the research during the first 20 years of the 21st century.
What did you find?
– We have identified trends, knowledge gaps, and been able to analyse how digitalisation affects the development of tourism, with a particular focus on spatial and social aspects, says Fredrik Hoppstadius.
Lotta Braunerhielm, your study addresses spatial and social aspects of research on the digitalisation of tourism – tell us more
– The reason we chose to highlight spatial and social aspects is based on our human geography perspective, which emphasises that each place is unique and built on socio-cultural conditions created by people. This means that since people are different, and there are various forms of resources such as nature, culture and history, places are also different. As a result, solutions that work in cities, for example, don’t necessarily work in rural areas.
– Central to our study is to highlight whether and, if so, how people and places are incorporated into the development process of digitalisation within the tourism industry, for example, when it comes to developing digital tools to enhance an experience. We have chosen to focus on the way this has been illustrated and problematised by other researchers.
How can you research be implemented in the new degree programme in tourism and place design at Karlstad University?
– Our research helps to demonstrate the importance of how tourism and digitalisation are addressed in research, that is, without critical reflection on how technology affects places, people, destinations and the industry as a whole, says Lotta Braunerhielm. The study also contributes to a reflective approach to the relationship between places and technology, that is, what the geomedia perspective can offer. This knowledge makes a valuable contribution to the students’ work in designing places for tourism, where we demonstrate the importance of working with place-based digital development in harmony with places and people.
The research paper “The relationship between technology and place in tourism” was written within a project funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Region Värmland and Karlstad University.
