From digitization to the age of acceleration: On information technology and tourism

This essay presents an overview of the research development over the last twenty years on information technology and tourism. It argues that knowledge created in the last two decades can be characterized as consisting of two distinct eras, i.e., Digitization (1997-2006) and Age of Acceleration (2007-2016), which reflected the general understanding of how technology has transformed our society and economy. Knowledge development within each of these eras is examined in terms of the technological conditions, dominant paradigms, main research questions, and influential discipline and research approaches. Particularly, it recognizes the shift of our view of information technology in tourism research from a primarily a marketing-driven tool to a knowledge creation tool due to new technological conditions such as the smartphone, drone, wearables, new connectivity and big data. Finally, this essay discusses possible future research problems and challenges our existing views of the relationship between information technology and tourism.