Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a non-contact, automatic identification technology. Through its radio frequency signal, RFID offers automatic target recognition and access to relevant and without human intervention identification of work is made. RFID can work in various environments. It can identify fast moving objects and is capable of identifying multiple tags, in a rapid and convenient operation. Since the 1990s, RFID technology has been widely used in commercial, logistics, property management and other fields, but interest towards potential application to the needs of the tourism industry only began in recent years.
TopThe Connotation Of Tourist Management
A tourist attraction mainly targets travelers who are its consumers. From the consumers’ point of view, the behavior and needs of tourists should be highly valued by tourist attraction managers. However, there is a feature that renders inseparable the process of tourist production and consumption. Travelers play not only the role of consumers but also the key point of tourist attraction service. Thus, managers of tourist attractions should pay attention on the role of travelers along with bringing travelers’ supervision into scenic spots management.
In countries where a tourism economy is highly developed, traveler management is widely accepted. ‘Traveler management’ mainly refers to trying to meet the needs of travelers on the premise of maintaining the sustainable environment and resource development, which use the manner of technology, education, economy, administration, and law to manage travelers (Zhang Wen and Li Na, 2007).
According to existing research, theories and practices are mainly focused on the following six aspects of traveler management: demand and preference, behavior, capacity, safety, experience and impact.
The Management of Traveler Demand and Preference
‘Management of Traveler Demand and Preference’ refers to consumer preferences for particular products and services of different tourists. Understanding and analyzing the needs and preferences of tourists in different aspects will help in the provision of appropriate services to tourists. Consequently, tourist demands and preferences in the scenic area of product management and marketing optimization, as well as tourism planning and tourism industry, were all of great significance (Bramwell,1998).
Scholars from other countries had conducted in-depth studies of this topic. Um S.(1992)studied the decision process of tourism destination and believes there is a process of change passive to active on tourists perceived needs. Stephen W.Li Win(2001)suggests that there are significant differences in preferences between the first time travelers and returning costumers concerning the demand for tourism products. Noam Shoval (2004) analyzed the attraction preference towards travelers from different cities and found out that there is a distinct impact between ‘the length of stay, the times of travel and consumer behavior. Meanwhile, Alison J.McIntosh(2004) categorized tourism product preferences into five types: seek novelty, to understand the local lifestyle, cultural authenticity, communication with locals and exchange pleasure of learning opportunities with locals. All these research results are expected to assist managers understand the law of tourist attractions and behavior patterns of consumption in order to further provide better services and products, thereby enhancing the quality of travel experience.
The Management of Traveler Behavior
In tourist behavior management, current major overseas research focuses on describing tourists visiting the scenic spots in order to tap the law of tourists visiting. The common used research technology and method includes: GIS (A geographic information system). H. Randy Gimblett (1998) combined location map and GIS data to use the techniques and methods to track visitor behavior monitoring and modeling to analyze tourist activities with the environment as well as the interactions between scenic spots and visitors. In addition, Martin Opperman (1997) conducted a study on the behaviour difference between first-time travelers and returning customers which showed that the stay period and travel scale is more focused for returning travelers.