Análisis interno

Gamified applications are being introduced in various sectors – healthcare, fitness, education as well as in the tourism industry (Bulencea & Egger, 2015; Xu et al., 2013, 2015; Weber, 2014). As argued by Xu et al. (2015), tourism companies use it as a marketing tool and facilitator of deeper engagement with tourists. The so-called trend of gamification, i.e. gaming elements or gaming in non-gaming contexts, is being developed as persuasive technologies to affect and change users’ attitudes and behaviours through social influence and persuasion (Bogot, 2007). It can be used as a strategy to promote a tourism organisation or destination with an opportunity to construct entertaining and informative venues for brand awareness and communication (Xu et al., 2015). Tourism is an attractive area for gamification applications because it is principally an experience industry (Pine & Gilmore, 2011) and the use of experiential information in marketing is strongly supported by researchers. Digital gaming elements have the potential to support dynamic interactions with users, and offer opportunities for co-creation of personalised services and experiences (Neuhofer et al., 2012).

Xu at el., (2014) described the benefits of gamification in tourism, which included: 1. Tourist engagement: game play is characterised by dimensions of enjoyment,

immersion, pleasure, motivation, and state of flow. They also are capable of evoking different emotions (happiness, excitement, fear, frustration) or even elicit calls for action (Zichermann & Cunningham, 2011).

2. Experience enhancement: tourism is an experience economy and offers multifaceted and multidimensional experiences (Neuhofer et al., 2012) characterised by intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, which are also dimensions of game thinking and game design elements (Deterding et al., 2011);

3. Building loyalty: gamification can contribute to creating more dynamic and interactive models for building customer loyalty, which is often a strategic goal in the relationship marketing of tourism firms.

4. Brand awareness can be achieved in different ways (Celtek, 2010). It can be designed as a branded game with the purpose to advertise and strengthen the brand with the aim of strong game recall. It can also be in-game placement of the brand, where a company’s logo is imbedded into an existing game, for example

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Starwood’s loyalty programme in Foursquare. Eventually, it could be done as on- site advertisement by placing banners on game websites.

There are two types of tourism-related gaming (Xu et al., 2014):

1. Social games. These games are based on social media (e.g. Facebook) and are usually played by users before a trip. Such games typically raise brand awareness

and generate favourable images of a destination, e.g. Thailand2_{. The games in}

Thailand’s case are offered by destination management organisations as a destination marketing initiative. Airlines like Virgin Atlantic and KLM also invest in similar initiatives. Social games can stimulate the development of online communities, which can influence brand awareness, facilitate better understanding on part of travellers, and even counteract negative word of mouth (Fong & Frost, 2009).

2. Location-based mobile games. These games are typically played during the stay at a destination to engage visitors on-site. The purpose of location-based games is to enhance the touristic experience by making it more informative and fun (Waltz & Ballagas, 2007). Current location-based games are mainly based on the concept of a treasure hunt, for example, REXplorer. Here the purpose is to make visitors visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Regensburg, Germany while engaging with the mobile game. There are also games that involve visitors in knowledge competitions by solving clues and completing tasks at various touristic points of interest, e.g. the Amazing City Game in Trondheim, Norway. A recent trend is mobile games with augmented reality features that blend virtual and real environments (Yovcheva et al., 2014).

However, despite the recent hype around gamified touristic applications, many of them fail to engage visitors successfully. For example, such applications may lack significant information about the destination (Celtek, 2010), or may lack an understanding of tourist needs. Moreover, location-based games that are based on augmented reality pose various technical issues such as “real time calibration” (Xu et al., 2015:2). Tourism-related games necessitate explicit, particular destination information, which can be challenging to integrate into games. Moreover, tourists play games in unfamiliar environments as opposed to traditional gamers at home. Tourists are usually bound by limited time at the destination and they may be more interested in the actual, surrounding environment than digital games (Fernandes et al., 2013). Thus, the needs and motivations of tourists and traditional digital game players may differ considerably. Designers have to understand and incorporate both groups’ needs within gamified applications to deliver memorable experiences in a seamless manner (Bulencea & Egger, 2015).

2 _{www.smilelandgame.com}

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Various researchers (Xu et al., 2014; Werbach & Hunter, 2011) are cautious about the over-gamification of life and the “pointifying” of experiences by introducing scoring systems and badges as incentives. This can lead to user fatigue and annoyance, and such applications may fail to portray meaningful experiences. As argued by Xu et al. (2015), gamification in tourism is in its infancy, and there are limited examples of its successful implementation. This is barring successful applications like location-based treasure hunts and applications related to cultural heritage.

Xu et al. (2015) also argue that gamification is a potential marketing opportunity for tourism because games have a dimension of pleasure (Zichermann & Linder, 2010), which can translate into a powerful marketing element. Mobile gaming has the potential to augment visitor interest in the destination, enhance knowledge about the place, and to help co-create their personal experiences on the site.

In their focus group research with Chinese students, Xu et al. (2015) elicited six motivations for tourism to incorporate mobile games:

1. Curiosity: mobile games invoke interest and curiosity.

2. Exploration: games enable travellers to discover peculiarities about a destination in a fun way.

3. Virtual experiences: a blended experience of virtual and actual reality.

4. Socialising: through various game activities, tourists might get to know local people who live in the destination or other fellow travellers.

5. Fun: games are a fun and interactive way to engage with the destination.

6. Challenge and achievement: games satisfy intrinsic motivations like feeling rewarded when correctly completing tasks.

Moreover, the motivation to learn, explore and discover was highlighted as an important driver for visitors to play touristic games (Xu et al., 2015). Bulencea and Egger (2015) argue that in the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 2011), memorable experience is a key economic driver. Thus, intentionally designing memorable experiences is a critical component for the economic sustainability of tourism. According to Boswijk et al. (2012), memorable experiences encompass various aspects such as: (1) Concentration and focus; (2) Involvement of all senses; (3) Altered time awareness; (4) Emotional connection; (5) Unique process with intrinsic value; and (6) Element of playfulness and challenge. Bulencea and Egger (2015) further argue that games and touristic experiences share similar characteristics of memorable experiences. The researchers propose to combine approaches in game (gamification) and experience design in building toward more nuanced and memorable touristic experiences.

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