Digital Tourism vs. Digitalized Tourism: A Conceptual Clarification
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https://doi.org/10.67148/fahss-2026-223关键词:
Digital Tourism; Digitalized Tourism; Conceptual Stretching; Mediating Mechanisms; Tourism Quality; Sustainability摘要
Tourism literature frequently conflates "digital tourism" with "digitalization," causing severe measurement errors and endogeneity crises in empirical research. To resolve this conceptual stretching, this study draws a sharp ontological line between two distinct phenomena: digitalized tourism, where physical travel and corporeal presence remain non-negotiable baselines, and digital tourism, which delivers experiences exclusively through synthetic environments without physical mobility. Building on systems theory and Service-Dominant logic, we construct a nomological framework identifying three core mediating mechanisms—information efficiency, value chain upgrading, and governance optimization—to unpack how technology drives tourism quality. We find that while both paradigms share this feedback loop, they follow divergent pathways: one optimizes crowd physics in physical settings, while the other builds virtual value chains out of nothing. Finally, referencing European Smart Tourism policies, we highlight their contrasting resource demands, supplying policymakers with a tailored playbook for high-quality, sustainable development.
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