Typology of Digital Business Models in Tourism

Abstract

Digital business models are reshaping industries nowadays. This trend certainly includes the tourism and hospitality sector, where several digital business models have already gained extraordinary momentum and transformed the way business is done. There is a growing body of scholarly literature concerning individual digital business models in tourism, yet papers with comprehensive comparison of digital business models in tourism are scarce. The aim of the paper is to fill this research gap and provide a thorough overview and comparison of the most important types of digital business models in tourism. Methods used to achieve this include case studies and structured literature review supplemented with content analysis. The most important characteristics of each business model have been identified and analyzed using relevant frameworks. Further, a tourism digital business models typology has been proposed that classifies the currently prevailing digital business models in this sector into seven distinct types.