I am a tourist. I want to experience and I want to explore.
I like having fun, being close to my friends and relatives, feeling their feedback wherever and whenever I travel.
I travel with my mobile. My mobile is my friend, my map, my planner, my diary, my media and my data container. I share cookies in every city I visit.
I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, I’m on Tripadvisor, I’m on Twitter, I’m on Youtube, I’m virtual. My experience is data.
I can look inside the city I am going to visit, before visiting it. Online groups, discussion platforms, social media channels, official websites and travel blogs are open to me. I learn from them, and they learn from me. This is where my travel begins.
I want to manage my travel from the beginning to the end in real-time. I love experiencing personalisation and easy payments. I love real-time information because I want to stay well informed.
I am a responsible tourist. I am a premium tourist. I am overtourism. I am oversharing. I am overreacting because of coronavirus.
That is what I am.

I am a resident. I have my life and privacy.
I am proud of my city. I care about my neighbourhood. I am a local activist. I am a conscious citizen. I am the representative of my community. I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, I’m on Tripadvisor, I’m on Twitter, I’m on Youtube, I’m virtual.
I welcome friends and visitors warmly. I co-create their experiences. However, I do not tolerate too many of them. If so, I can build the resistance movement. I do feel my empowerment. My power is data.
That is what I am.

I am a tourist provider. I am hospitality, cuisine, event planner, local guide. I am a global chain, and I am a local entrepreneur.
I am the host. I am the quality. I perform with and through experiences. I create local taste, city atmosphere, tourist appeal.
I shape my offer with my guests, followers and friends. I appreciate good reviews, honest opinions and many likes. They are my data.
That is what I am.

I am an ICT-driven company. Tourism is just a field on which I perform. I am an online travel agency. I am a booking engine. I am a social media. I am a sharing platform. I am a tourist app. I am on your mobile, and I am there right now.
I use many data sources to create and deliver an experience value chain to my users. I like cross-selling. I manage payments. I love personalising experiences. I communicate with my users, guests or travellers in real-time. They are my data.
I create travel solutions. I am going to deliver door-to-door experience packages soon. I am the revolution.
That is what I am.

I am a destination manager. Once, I used to be a destination marketer and deliver information to visitors. I created TV-campaigns, destination websites, online blogs, social media fan pages. I still try shaping the destination brand.
I form partnerships, I discuss problems, I manage conflicts.
I try to adopt. I learn user experience design, agile management, emotional selling proposition and other new concepts.
Now, I see data, and I see global tourist apps, and I feel confused. I feel lost.
That is what I am.

I am a tourism researcher. I am a place marketing agency, tourism research institute, tourism data analyst, an academic or a city think-tank.
I analyse and interpret the data. I like studying tourist experience.
I describe who nowadays visitors are and what cities should do in the times of big data. I value tourist experiences. I am going to discuss what premium tourist experiences are.
That is what I am.

So, who I am depends on who you are. Please take your view but be open to the views of others. In the tourism industry, that is what we are.

Introductory speech to the panel Managing Tourist Experience during 2nd International Conference HISTORICAL CITIES 3.0. IN SEARCH OF A PREMIUM TOURIST, 11 March 2020, ICE Krakow Congress Centre, Krakow.

Photos by Johan Mouchet, Joris Visser, Rhema Kallianpur, Ilya Pavlov, Hunters Race, and Adeolu Eletu (respectively) on Unsplash