Customer value, regional resources, and ICT adaptation: An integrated view and case studies in in-depth tourism

In-depth tourism is by no means an emergent pattern of modern traveling. From many known practices, the so called attractive in-depth tourism services would usually be featured and embedded in integration of some unique regional resources, personal experiencing facilities and pre-composed storied thematic knowledge. Furthermore, most services in in-depth tourism are fulfilling their multiform customer demands via IT and viable marketing activities. This paper explores a conceptual framework for examining in-depth tourism. The framework combines three facets: customer value, regional resources, and ICT adaptation. Four cases are examined: Kyoto culture tourism, Montana cultural tourism, Amsterdam sport tourism, and Kruger National Park eco-tourism. Finally we conclude that, in in-depth tourism, to integrate players is more important than business alone, and to cooperate with new resource providers and content industry such as culture industry and media industry on creation to increase appealing to tourists will become a vital objective.