PhD Studentship : "Tourism Analysis of Peer-To-Peer Accomodation Platforms in Spanish Destination T

A PhD position is available associated to the project " TOURISM ANALYSIS OF PEER-TO-PEER ACCOMMODATION PLATFORMS IN SPANISH DESTINATION THROUGH USER GENERATED CONTENTS AND OTHER ONLINE SOURCES"

 

The summary of the project is:

The TURCOLAB project focuses on the 7th challenge: Digital Economy and Society, and does so by addressing the commercial peer-to-peer accommodation platforms from the points of view of both supply and the demand, based on tourism analytics of user-generated contents and other online sources. A topic of great importance and social, territorial and economic relevance, the scientific objective of TURCOLAB is to develop an analytical, conceptual and ethodological, holistic and innovative model, to understand the phenomenon of collaborative tourist accommodation, identify the benefits it has for its users, to evaluate its  Internet presence, interactivity and social impact, both for its users and for the accommodation and tourism sector in general, which is of great use to the tourism sector, researchers and public managers. This approach is based on the idea that in the digital age, the sharing economy has become a new socioeconomic system that allows the co-creation, production, distribution and consumption of goods and services between individuals, driven by web 2.0 and e-word of mouth. The online platforms under study, which enable people to easily share the access to different resources without major costs, have undergone a major boom and have gained acceptance in recent years.

Bearing these considerations in mind, the following general hypothesis of the project is established: The phenomenon of collaborative accommodation provides greater advantages and satisfaction and offers greater added value for users (consumers and owners) than traditional hotel accommodation. To carry out the research work, a methodological, quantitative and qualitative approach will be used, given the complex and subjective nature of the subject for analysis, and the need to perform a strategic reflection on it from a global perspective. From the qualitative approach, in-depth interviews will be conducted both with the users (consumers and suppliers) of the collaborative accommodation platforms and with the traditional hotel sector in order to elucidate aspects of the users' profile, the characteristics of the accommodation or  interactions between the agents involved. The quantitative approach combines and develops big data analysis and compositional analysis methods to perform an integral analysis of accommodation platforms, and to study how and why the collaborative accommodation phenomenon brings greater advantages, satisfaction or offers greater added value for users (consumers and suppliers) than traditional hotel accommodation. This methodology will be applied to Spanish destinations.

The main contributions of the project will be the development, creation and application of a new end-to-end methodology for big data analysis in collaborative tourism platforms and, based on the results obtained, the construction of a new conceptual framework to understand collaborative tourism platforms that goes beyond their simple equation to social media and demonstrates their added value over other types of accommodation. Finally, the results will be disseminated through the activities proposed in the TURCOLAB project: seminars, publications, the organization of conferences, updating of blogs, twitter and websites.

Position available for 1 year. After evaluation at the end of the first year, the contract can be extended up to 2 years more

Gross salary around 15.000 € / year

 

Requirements

• Professional and research experience
• Knowledge or interest in the studied subject
• Technology and communication skills

The research area is related to the sharing economy, specifically accommodation services.