Adoption and Assimilation of Big data in Tourism organizations

The combined use of data coming from various sources that would cover different aspects of individuals’ lives is a reality now through digital networks and data analytical tools offering big opportunities for improved business competitiveness; this is the Big Data evolution. For tourism and hospitality organizations to be analytical and use Big Data approaches, a specific set of frameworks are needed to enable the organizations to participate in the Big Data evolution. Much of the current thinking about big data focuses on the usefulness and the potential that it offers for enhancing business performance within a tourism setting. The main aim of this chapter is to explore and illustrate the big data flows comprising the business ecosystem decision making processes. What would contribute to the literature is to illustrate how big data shapes decision making. This chapter focuses on showcasing the various internal and external big data streams and highlights the added benefits for improving decision making within and across the tourism enterprise.