2008: Networks on tour

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Tags: tourism, winter-2009

Rodolfo Baggio, PhD

Network analysis and tourism are two areas of study that sound wildly apart, but PhD graduate Rodolfo Baggio has used these concepts to explain why some tourist destinations are more successful than others.

Rodolfo Baggio

Mr Baggio, who teaches computer science and information technology at Bocconi University, Milan, has published his research in a new book that discusses tourism destinations using social networks, rather than traditional geographic perspectives.

Network Analysis and Tourism: From Theory to Practice examines how tourist destinations can be seen from a social perceptive as a group of people or businesses.

Mr Baggio said tourism destinations benefited when relationships between the public and private organisations operating in their territory were well developed.

Studying these groups allowed for increased efficiency in improving the competitiveness of the destination.

Mr Baggio’s PhD thesis found network analysis could explain how collaboration and interaction worked at different locations.

By treating organisational relationships as networks within a tourist destination, it is possible to test different configurations to discover their efficiency.

“We may change the capacity of the organisations in the network to transfer information and see how the speed of diffusion changes,” Mr Baggio said.

“For example, we may see how effective an ‘education’ program can be for the whole system. Or we can modify the linkages and find out whether fostering collaboration among operators can provide better results.”

Mr Baggio shows no signs of slowing down with his studies in tourism and network analysis.

He has recently been appointed chair of the Information Technology and Tourism session at the next International Federation for Information Processing World Computer Congress.

By Matthew Bassos

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