ABSTRACT
Tourism is going mobile. This statement might seem grammatically tautological but until relatively recently, many of the online aspects of travel and tourism that are beyond the trip experience, including: search for ideas and inspiration, recommendations and relevant information, refl ection and sharing stories and photos and so on, were characterized by their spatial fi xity. Society’s increasing dependence on the Internet and digital social media in particular pretty much dictated a fi xed location, in that consumers needed to be at their desktops or within access of an Internet connection via a laptop in order to engage and communicate online with their social networks and tourism businesses and destinations. However, as other authors in this volume have alluded to, recent developments in smartphone technology, adoption and use are changing the rules of the game in which all businesses, including tourism businesses and destinations, operate.
