Smart Tourism, Skipit case
Translated title
Project report
Author
Lopez, Liliana
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2021
Submitted on
2021-06-04
Pages
19
Abstract
This thesis examines smart tourism through a case study of Skipit, a fintech-based mobile platform designed to make city visits more efficient and sustainable. Skipit offers a digital transport card with a minimum top-up via the smartphone wallet, public transport ticket purchases, a GPS-enabled journey planner, and a community feed where travelers share local and authentic places. The study is guided by two questions: What role can a fintech company play in tourism, and how does Skipit contribute to smart tourism? And can the app address tourists’ challenges with public transport and local wayfinding to help distribute visits to new neighborhoods and benefit both visitors and local communities? Adopting a constructivist, inductive, and exploratory approach, the research uses qualitative methods—particularly semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with key Skipit staff—followed by thematic coding to identify patterns in perspectives and practices. The work highlights the use of (open) data in app development, the founders’ motivations, and the challenges of building a digital mobility solution for tourism. Reliability and validity considerations are addressed, while COVID-19 restrictions limited access to some developers and thus the data. The thesis aims to offer insights into how mobile payments, open data, and community features can support more user-friendly and sustainable urban tourism; specific findings and conclusions are beyond the scope of this excerpt.
Dette speciale undersøger smart turisme gennem et casestudie af Skipit, en fintech-baseret mobilplatform, der skal gøre bybesøg mere effektive og bæredygtige. Skipit tilbyder en digital rejsekortløsning med minimum “tank op” via smartphone-tegnebogen, billetkøb til offentlig transport, en GPS-baseret rejseplanlægger samt et fællesskabsfeed, hvor rejsende deler lokale og autentiske steder. Undersøgelsen stiller to centrale spørgsmål: Hvilken rolle kan en fintech-virksomhed spille i turismen, og hvordan bidrager Skipit til smart turisme? Og kan appen afhjælpe turisters udfordringer med offentlig transport og lokal orientering, så besøg spredes til nye bydele til gavn for både turister og lokalsamfund? Med en konstruktivistisk, induktiv og eksplorativ tilgang anvendes kvalitative metoder, især semistrukturerede, ansigt-til-ansigt-interviews med centrale personer i Skipit, efterfulgt af tematisk kodning for at identificere mønstre i udsagn og praksis. Projektet belyser brugen af (åbne) data i appudviklingen, udviklernes motivationer og de udfordringer, der følger med at skabe en digital mobilitetsløsning inden for turisme. Pålidelighed og validitet adresseres metodisk, mens COVID-19-relaterede restriktioner begrænsede adgangen til nogle udviklere og dermed datagrundlaget. Specialet sigter mod at bidrage med indsigt i, hvordan mobile betalingsløsninger, åbne data og community-funktioner kan fremme en mere brugervenlig og bæredygtig urban turisme; konkrete resultater og konklusioner ligger uden for dette uddrags rækkevidde.
[This apstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]
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