Tourism Events, Festivals and Technology Application in Asia: Directions for Future Research

How far technology application in tourism events and festivals can uplift demand for tourism destinations in Asia? Celebration of diverse events have been one of the ancient arrangements for attracting backpackers from home and abroad worldwide. Now, owing to diverse ceremonial practices, customs and culinary cultures of Asia, this region has tempted global excursionists since ages. Initially, this paper endeavors to explore the rationale behind such attractions in contemporary Asia. In parallel to fostering inherent traditions of colorful festivals, the evolution of ‘Information and Technology (IT)’ application in tourism and hospitality sector has emerged as a ‘juvenile’ yet ‘critical tool’ in this competitive twenty-first century’s Asian tourism industry. Now, this paper weighs that to what extent technology application in Asian events and festivals can complement tourism demand today. Eventually, this paper has also unfolded the limitations of technological equipment in Asia. The significance of technology application in tourism events such as digital marketing, social media branding, digital opinion polls, e-booking, digital broadcastings, online tourist agencies, digital literacy etc. have been analyzed in accelerating destination demands in Asia. This paper has compiled secondary data-based content analysis method using qualitative research methodology. Furthermore, this paper has analyzed the vigor of technological equipment among different Asian countries to generate a comparative analysis. Finally, this paper has designed some future directions to ensure maximum utilization of technology in event tourism in complying with the targets of sustainable tourism development in the future days to transpire.