IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/infott/v24y2022i4d10.1007_s40558-022-00234-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The pandemic of loneliness: designing smart tourism for combating loneliness

Author

Listed:
  • Uglješa Stankov

    (Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad)

  • Ulrike Gretzel

    (USC Center for Public Relations, University of Southern California)

  • Miroslav D. Vujičić

    (Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad)

  • Vanja Pavluković

    (Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad)

  • Tamara Jovanović

    (Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad)

  • Milica Solarević

    (Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad)

  • Marija Cimbaljević

    (Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad)

Abstract

Many technologically driven societies currently experience a “pandemic of loneliness“. The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to conceptualize loneliness as a persistent and widespread issue among consumers that has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly spills over into the travel and tourism domain. This issue creates many challenges for smart tourism design as it implies changed consumer perspectives on smart tourism and needs for smart tourist experiences. This viewpoint paper is based on a review of relevant academic literature and online resources regarding the issue of loneliness, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and potential solutions in smart tourism settings. Loneliness has been completely overlooked by the smart tourism research agenda despite its tremendous implications for engagement, value co-creation, and the need for experience enhancement. This viewpoint paper proposes a framework for designing a loneliness-sensitive smart tourism ecosystem (LoSSTE). The purpose of this paper is to start a debate on how to mobilize smart tourism research for combating loneliness in the post-pandemic era and to outline areas for further research.

Suggested Citation

  • Uglješa Stankov & Ulrike Gretzel & Miroslav D. Vujičić & Vanja Pavluković & Tamara Jovanović & Milica Solarević & Marija Cimbaljević, 2022. "The pandemic of loneliness: designing smart tourism for combating loneliness," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 439-455, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infott:v:24:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s40558-022-00234-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s40558-022-00234-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40558-022-00234-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40558-022-00234-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berezan, Orie & Krishen, Anjala S. & Agarwal, Shaurya & Kachroo, Pushkin, 2020. "Exploring loneliness and social networking: Recipes for hedonic well-being on Facebook," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 258-265.
    2. Ulrike Gretzel & Uglješa Stankov, 2021. "ICTs and well-being: challenges and opportunities for tourism," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-4, March.
    3. Fox, Stephen & Griffy-Brown, Charla & Dabic, Marina, 2020. "From socio-technical systems to biosocial technical systems: New themes and new guidance for the field of technology in society," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Uglješa Stankov & Ulrike Gretzel, 2021. "Digital well-being in the tourism domain: mapping new roles and responsibilities," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 5-17, March.
    5. Arturo Molina-Collado & Mar Gómez-Rico & Marianna Sigala & María Victoria Molina & Evangelina Aranda & Yolanda Salinero, 2022. "Mapping tourism and hospitality research on information and communication technology: a bibliometric and scientific approach," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 299-340, June.
    6. Longstreet, Phil & Brooks, Stoney & Gonzalez, Ester S., 2019. "Internet addiction: When the positive emotions are not so positive," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 76-85.
    7. Inge Hermann & Cody Morris Paris, 2020. "Digital Nomadism: the nexus of remote working and travel mobility," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 329-334, September.
    8. Arturo Molina-Collado & Mar Gómez-Rico & Marianna Sigala & María Victoria Molina & Evangelina Aranda & Yolanda Salinero, 2022. "Correction to: Mapping tourism and hospitality research on information and communication technology: a bibliometric and scientific approach," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 341-342, June.
    9. Yang Yang & Jason L. Stienmetz, 2018. "Big data and tourism planning," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 189-190, December.
    10. Xiang, Zheng & Stienmetz, Jason & Fesenmaier, Daniel R., 2021. "Smart Tourism Design: Launching the annals of tourism research curated collection on designing tourism places," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    11. Jaradat, Maram & Jibreel, Manal & Skaik, Huda, 2020. "Individuals' perceptions of technology and its relationship with ambition, unemployment, loneliness and insomnia in the Gulf," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Shanthi Saravanan & Balasundaram Sadhu Ramakrishnan, 2016. "Preserving privacy in the context of location based services through location hider in mobile-tourism," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 229-248, June.
    13. Ulrike Gretzel & Matthias Fuchs & Rodolfo Baggio & Wolfram Hoepken & Rob Law & Julia Neidhardt & Juho Pesonen & Markus Zanker & Zheng Xiang, 2020. "e-Tourism beyond COVID-19: a call for transformative research," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 187-203, June.
    14. Eti Ben Simon & Matthew P. Walker, 2018. "Sleep loss causes social withdrawal and loneliness," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
    15. Pung, Jessica Mei & Gnoth, Juergen & Del Chiappa, Giacomo, 2020. "Tourist transformation: Towards a conceptual model," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    16. Thomas Davenport & Abhijit Guha & Dhruv Grewal & Timna Bressgott, 2020. "How artificial intelligence will change the future of marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 24-42, January.
    17. Sam Fardghassemi & Hélène Joffe, 2022. "The causes of loneliness: The perspective of young adults in London’s most deprived areas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-19, April.
    18. Kim, Jihyun & Merrill Jr., Kelly & Collins, Chad & Yang, Hocheol, 2021. "Social TV viewing during the COVID-19 lockdown: The mediating role of social presence," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Ma, Xiumei & Zhang, Xiaofei & Guo, Xitong & Lai, Kee-hung & Vogel, Doug, 2021. "Examining the role of ICT usage in loneliness perception and mental health of the elderly in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hannes Werthner, 2022. "A digital humanism view on e-tourism," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 347-360, September.
    2. Neuhofer, Barbara & Egger, Roman & Yu, Joanne & Celuch, Krzysztof, 2021. "Designing experiences in the age of human transformation: An analysis of Burning Man," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Makoza, Frank, 2023. "The role of digital nomadism in COVID-19 recovery strategy of the tourism sector: Case of Cape Town, South Africa," EconStor Preprints 270980, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Vasile MAZILESCU, 2021. "Tourism Industry must benefit from IT&C Hyperautomation," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 1, pages 97-106.
    5. Ulrike Gretzel & Uglješa Stankov, 2021. "ICTs and well-being: challenges and opportunities for tourism," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-4, March.
    6. Darima Fotheringham & Michael A. Wiles, 2023. "The effect of implementing chatbot customer service on stock returns: an event study analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 802-822, July.
    7. Leah Warfield Smith & Randall Lee Rose & Alex R. Zablah & Heath McCullough & Mohammad “Mike” Saljoughian, 2023. "Examining post-purchase consumer responses to product automation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 530-550, May.
    8. Marco Valeri & Rodolfo Baggio, 2021. "A critical reflection on the adoption of blockchain in tourism," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 121-132, June.
    9. Yushan Hou & Chang Cai & Houlin Tang & Yichen Jin & Fangfang Chen & Dandan Niu & Fan Lv, 2023. "Sexual Behavior and Perceived Loneliness in Elderly People Living with HIV in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-8, February.
    10. Uglješa Stankov & Ulrike Gretzel, 2020. "Tourism 4.0 technologies and tourist experiences: a human-centered design perspective," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 477-488, September.
    11. Latinovic, Zoran & Chatterjee, Sharmila C., 2022. "Achieving the promise of AI and ML in delivering economic and relational customer value in B2B," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 966-974.
    12. Shengliang Zhang & Chaoying Huang & Xiaodong Li & Ai Ren, 2022. "Understanding Impacts of Service Robots with the Revised Gap Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, February.
    13. Jabeen, Fauzia & Tandon, Anushree & Azad, Nasreen & Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Pereira, Vijay, 2023. "The dark side of social media platforms: A situation-organism-behaviour-consequence approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PA).
    14. Husain, Shaiara & Sohag, Kazi & Wu, Yanrui, 2022. "The response of green energy and technology investment to climate policy uncertainty: An application of twin transitions strategy," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    15. de Almeida, Liliane & Augusto de Jesus Pacheco, Diego & Caten, Carla Schwengber ten & Jung, Carlos Fernando, 2021. "A methodology for identifying results and impacts in technological innovation projects," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. Teck Ming Tan & Saila Saraniemi, 2023. "Trust in blockchain-enabled exchanges: Future directions in blockchain marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 914-939, July.
    17. Miranda, Sandra & Trigo, Inês & Rodrigues, Ricardo & Duarte, Margarida, 2023. "Addiction to social networking sites: Motivations, flow, and sense of belonging at the root of addiction," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    18. Cambra-Fierro, Jesús & Polo-Redondo, Yolanda & Trifu, Andreea, 2021. "Short-term and long-term effects of touchpoints on customer perceptions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Alotaibi, Norah Basheer & Mukred, Muaadh, 2022. "Factors affecting the cyber violence behavior among Saudi youth and its relation with the suiciding: A descriptive study on university students in Riyadh city of KSA," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    20. Ayat Sami ODEIBAT, 2021. "The Effect Of Technology Evolution On The Future Of Jobs," Network Intelligence Studies, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 17, pages 57-67, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:infott:v:24:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s40558-022-00234-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.