Knowledge sharing with customers on the WWW: Approaches by national tourism organizations

• Main Authors: YOU, Xinran, O'Leary, Joseph, NAH, Fiona Fui-hoon
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1999
• Subjects: Databases and Information Systems; Management Information Systems; Tourism and Travel
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/10062; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/11062/viewcontent/Knowledge_Sharing_with_Customers_on_the_WWW_pv.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The importance of knowledge management has been emphasized increasingly in recent literature. Knowledge has been regarded as the most important corporate asset in an organization (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). But what is knowledge? According to Harris (1996), "when information is combined with context and experience, it becomes knowledge". Hence, knowledge is the integration of information, context, and experience (Ponelis and Fairer-Wessels, 1998). In the tourism context of this paper, there are two components of knowledge: (1) customer knowledge--understanding of customers by marketers that leads to more effective marketing actions; and (2) destination knowledge that either the travelers or travel experts acquire through experiences or other channels. It is more than just information about a destination – it is more than "what’s available at a destination" but "how can elements from a destination be packaged to provide a good travel experience".