Classification and Improvement Strategy for Design Features of Mobile Tourist Guide Application: A Kano-IPA Approach

An increasing number of people are using mobile applications to obtain travel-related information and activities due to the prosperity of the internet and mobile technologies nowadays. The design, development, and improvement of mobile tourist guide application (MTGA) are particularly important for travel-related companies. As an emerging application scenario of mobile technologies in the field of tourism, existing research on MTGA lacks analysis of its specific design, especially from the perspective of users to investigate the microscopic design features and improvement strategies. The Kano model was adopted by prior studies to analyse product quality attribute, while importance-performance analysis (IPA) was used to prioritize quality attributes for improvement. However, due to the limitation of the Kano model in neglecting the attribute performance and importance and the weakness of IPA in considering only the one-dimensional quality attributes, the use of single approach has its shortcomings for analysing the design features of MTGA. We attempt to integrate Kano model and IPA to conduct a study on the classification and improvement strategy issues for the design features of MTGA. Particularly, we identify design features of MTGA first, propose a method to classify them, and determine their priorities for developing and improving as well. An online questionnaire survey is conducted. The paper extends research on Kano model and IPA into the domain of mobile application design and provides insights into management strategies about the design of MTGA, which also offers novel and important implications for travel-related companies to increase the users’ satisfaction by optimizing their mobile application design.

Mobile tourist guide supporting a smart city initiative: a Brazilian case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a smart city initiative presenting a mobile tourist guide developed for Natal, Brazil. Design/methodology/approach – This study has employed an exploratory case study approach to gain more knowledge about a smart city initiative and a mobile tourist guide in Brazil. The city of Natal was selected for this case study since it was one of the host cities during the FIFA World Cup 2014. The collected data for this research came from government (e.g. Natal Smart City plan), academic sources (e.g. Metropole Digital Institute (IMD)), and tourists’ information from the mobile tourist guide application. Findings – The smart city initiative of Natal, and the mobile tourist guide (named Find Natal) responsible for collecting, processing, sharing, storing and analysing the tourist behaviour were detailed in the paper. The Smart City Consortium in Natal is developing an interoperable and distributed infrastructure that is advancing the state-of-the-art in information and communication technologies (ICT) for planning and managing smart cities. The IMD implemented an application, which aims to enhance the traveller’s experience through software programs designed to leverage the infrastructure mechanisms behind the city. The data gathered by the application was analysed to show how it was used during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Originality/value – The results show a developed ICT initiative in a Latin American country. This study offers a starting point for destinations willing to implement and deploy a smart city initiative.