This book explores the impact of design science and design thinking on tourism planning, gathering contributions from leading authorities in the field of tourism research and providing a comprehensive and interconnected panorama of cutting-edge results that influence the current and future design of tourist destinations.

The book builds on recent findings in psychology, geography and urban and regional planning, as well as from economics, marketing and communications, and explores the opportunities arising from recent advances in the Internet and related technologies like memory, storage, RFID, GIS, mobile and social media in the context of collecting and analyzing traveler-related data. It presents a broad range of insights and cases on how modern design approaches can be used to develop new and better touristic experiences, and how they enable the tourism industry to track and communicate with visitors in a more meaningful way and more effectively manage visitor experiences.

 Daniel R. Fesenmaier is Director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute (EFTI), and a Professor in the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management, University of Florida. He teaches and conducts research focusing on the role of information technology in travel decisions, advertising evaluation, and the design of tourism places.
Zeng Xiang, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management in Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. His research interests include travel information search on the Internet, social media marketing, and the impact of information technology on the tourism and hospitality industries.