Phygital Innovations for Wine Tourism During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of the Jurançon Wine Cooperative in South West France

The objective of this chapter is to analyse the innovations adopted by the Jurançon Wine Cooperative (South West France) during the COVID-2019 pandemic in 2020/2021) and show how innovation helped maintain its tourist activity. The Jurançon Wine Cooperative is an SME at the forefront in terms of technological innovation and sustainable strategy and it is the 6th largest company in France in terms of the number of visitors per year (270, 000). Wine tourism players in France are more inclined to develop physical innovations related to local heritage than digital tools. Consequently, the implementation of "phygital” (i.e. both physical and digital) innovations in the wine tourism sector, as well as the analysis of a "phygital experience” for tourists, appears to have not yet been analysed. This chapter covers the outcomes of a case study method over a period of 1 year (2020) with the Jurançon Wine Cooperative. This was carried by out by a mix of focus groups interviews and observations with winegrowers, and analysis of secondary documents. The first results reveal that the COVID-19 crisis, which appeared in France in March 2020, accelerated the implementation of digital innovations in order to maintain wine tourist activity. However, it slowed down the implementation of a sustainable approach due to operational constraints. Conceptually, the results are twofold: firstly, innovations implemented by the Jurançon Wine Cooperative to develop its wine tourism strategy are physical, digital and partnership-based, which can be described as "phygital”. For example, physical innovations relate to a visit of the vineyards by small train or a pop-up store. Digital initiatives include videos for tourists arriving by bus and visiting the cooperative, or the development of JC's website for tourists. Secondly, a wine tourism experience for tourists can be defined as "phygital” as contributes to creating a new way for tourists to experience wine tourism in a dual physical and virtual world. This "phygital” tourism experience is a radical change for wine tourists, and constitutes a new experiential model. Our recommendation to wine tourism professionals is to set up a similar "phygital strategy” to encourage more tourists to be able have a richer experience during their visit. However, it is strongly recommended that a balance between "physical” vs. " digital” strategies is maintained, because of the importance of the human contact in the wine sector. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.

Introduction: how could rural tourism provide better support for wellbeing and socio-economic development?

Purpose: In this viewpoint, the theme editors provide an overview of the theme issue that aims to address the role of rural tourism in supporting the wellbeing and socio-economic development of local stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach: The paper covers different facets of rural tourism in promoting the socio-economic development of rural communities. Specifically, the articles in this issue capture the nuances of how local stakeholders in rural tourism in different geographical regions use various strategies to promote the well-being and socio-economic development of local communities. Findings: The papers in this theme issue demonstrate the potential role of rural tourism in promoting the socio-economic development of rural communities. These papers make an important contribution to the theory and practice of rural tourism by providing in-depth insight into the recovery and growth strategies adopted by stakeholders in diverse rural tourism destinations, especially in the wake of turbulent times such as the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These papers suggest frameworks for further research and provide case studies of innovation and adaptation. Originality/value: This theme issue analyses stories of innovation, adaptation, and growth of rural tourism in various destinations that presented the industry with unique challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion provides some lessons and charts direction for the industry. The significance is greater when stakeholders of rural tourism and policymakers view rural tourism as an engine for the recovery and growth of the rural and national economy. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Luxury consumption amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: This study investigates shifts in luxury consumers' perceptions regarding luxury consumption, subsequent changes in the meaning of luxury and antecedents of luxury observed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: Overall, 145, one-to-one qualitative interviews were conducted online with luxury consumers and the data acquired was analysed using NVivo. Findings: Phygital connectedness and access-based consumption are the future of luxury for luxury consumers' well-being, social connectedness, living experience and rational and thoughtful luxury consumption. Moreover, distinct luxury symbols (e.g. conciseness towards societal connotation of luxury goods and consumption, empathy, wisdom and maturity) and transformation expectations (for the self, others in society and luxury brands) govern luxury consumption behaviour. Research limitations/implications: The meaning of luxury amidst the pandemic is explained along a continuum, from luxury transforming consumers' inner selves to influencing other consumers' lives to transforming society. Practical implications: Luxury professionals should include phygital experience, sustainability, social–cultural sensitivity, empathy, symbolism, mindfulness and thoughtfulness in marketing strategies. Originality/value: New perspectives have enriched the realm of luxury. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Phygital technologies and environments for breakthrough innovation in customers' and citizens' journey. A critical literature review and future agenda

Digital transformation is radically impacting on society and market by disclosing unexpected implications for scholars and practitioners. As enablers of a pervasive innovation process, digital transformation relies on different categories of digital technologies with a breakthrough profile. Among them, phygital arises as a promising topic defined as the use of technology to bridge the digital with the physical world with the purpose of providing a unique interactive experience for the user. Due the actuality of the issue, the literature on phygital is fragmented and far from a full understanding of its meaning and implications. Moving from these premises, our research attempts to analyse the current state of the debate about the promising role of phygital environment to identify how digital technologies are transforming physical world. At this aim, a critical literature review is performed to identify how the customer experience is undergoing a renaissance due to the Covid-19 pandemic that forced organisations to improve the customer experiences. Our findings allow to identify main trends in the academic debate as grouped into five main clusters, related to the adoption of phygital technologies for: i) Marketing and Consumers' Behaviour;ii) Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Urban Development;iii) Education and Learning;iv) Social issues and Politics;v) Technical and Legal Issues. These areas are linked together showing how the different phygital environments lead to the provisions of novel and immersive experience for customers involved into strategic industries such as retail, tourism and education. Directions for future research and management implications are finally provided. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

Phygital rural cultural heritage: a digitalisation approach for destination recovery and resilience

Purpose>This study examines a phygital approach to rural cultural heritage tourism, adopted by a rural community in Sapphaya, Chai Nat Province, Thailand, in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Specifically, it investigates a community's initiatives to amalgamate its physical and digital marketing communications in order to engage with consumers as a strategy for destination recovery and resilience.Design/methodology/approach>This is a qualitative exploratory study involving three stages of action, applying two research approaches: (1) participatory action research (PAR) with Sapphaya's tourism stakeholders, and (2) social media research utilising netnographic analysis of Sapphaya's tourism social enterprise social media pages.Findings>The findings indicate that a phygital rural cultural heritage strategy can facilitate the interconnectivity between a destination's physical and digital dimensions of its cultural heritage tourism product, thereby enhancing its intrinsic value, meaning and experiential perceptions. Specifically, it recommends that a successful community-based phygitalisation strategy requires grassroot engagement across all stages of planning, development, implementation and management of the rural cultural heritage tourism product.Practical Implications>The paper focusses on the cultural heritage tourism strategy adopted by a rural community across the physical-digital-phygital spectrum to augment its sustainable tourism development during a time of crisis. A framework for phygital rural cultural heritage as a strategy for destination resilience and recovery is also proposed.Originality/value>This study adopts a local engagement approach to develop a cooperative community heritage management strategy, based upon local rural capacity building towards digitalisation and empowering innovative partnerships amongst its stakeholders.

Approaches to fi-gital experiences after the pandemic in communication students from Ecuador and Mexico

With the return to the classrooms after the COVID-19 Pandemic, there were several phenomena that lend themselves to reflection, one of them the so-called "phy-gital " that refers to the possibility of being in a certain place physically and also digitally through mobile devices, the present research sought to investigate the phy-gial (physical-digital) experiences in seventh-level students of the Communication Career of Universities in Ecuador and Mexico, and how they influenced their school performance. Among the findings are, which coincide in the importance of the use of technologies, that the phy-gital could be transferred to the classroom, and discrepancy was found between the perspective of the student and the reality of the teacher.

Phygital technologies and environments for breakthrough innovation in customers' and citizens' journey. A critical literature review and future agenda

Digital transformation is radically impacting on society and market by disclosing unexpected implications for scholars and practitioners. As enablers of a pervasive innovation process, digital transformation relies on different categories of digital technologies with a breakthrough profile. Among them, phygital arises as a promising topic defined as the use of technology to bridge the digital with the physical world with the purpose of providing a unique interactive experience for the user. Due the actuality of the issue, the literature on phygital is fragmented and far from a full understanding of its meaning and implications. Moving from these premises, our research attempts to analyse the current state of the debate about the promising role of phygital environment to identify how digital technologies are transforming physical world. At this aim, a critical literature review is performed to identify how the customer experience is undergoing a renaissance due to the Covid-19 pandemic that forced organisations to improve the customer experiences. Our findings allow to identify main trends in the academic debate as grouped into five main clusters, related to the adoption of phygital technologies for: i) Marketing and Consumers' Behaviour;ii) Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Urban Development;iii) Education and Learning;iv) Social issues and Politics;v) Technical and Legal Issues. These areas are linked together showing how the different phygital environments lead to the provisions of novel and immersive experience for customers involved into strategic industries such as retail, tourism and education. Directions for future research and management implications are finally provided.

The metaverse, online communities, and (real) urban space

With the COVID-19 pandemic, technological advance-ments and investments accelerated to create an alternative to the real world that makes it possible for various activ-ities and experiences to be handled online. Among these developments, the metaverse comes to the fore because it makes possible real and virtual experiences simultane-ously, regardless of the time and space the user exists in, and it acts as a mediator and medium to bring these two environments together. This article discusses the possible impacts of advancements in the metaverse on (real) ur-ban space considering the socio-spatial dialectic through theory synthesis and adaptation. An overall evaluation of the socio-spatial impacts of this is also included and opened up for discussion. Based on a literature review, it is expected that technological developments like the metaverse will introduce a new organization to physical and virtual socio-spatial relations, and new socio-techno-logical groups will be created in them and by using them.

The Influence of Phygital Learning: The User Expectations of Perceived Usability of Practical and Theoretical Courses

Recently, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are experiencing a revolution that is transforming the way, the education has now shifted to an "physical plus digital” or "phygital” multimodal. This paper analyses the students' behavioral intention to the phygital learning, meaning how students use online learning platform (e.g. Moodle), collaboration application (e.g. Microsoft teams), chat application (e.g. Wechat) and device (e.g. smartphone, laptop) of a course. For the evaluation purpose is followed by using the Semantic Differential Technique to distinguish the usage attitude of computer and smartphone. The Usage Questionnaire is followed by the System Usability Scale (SUS), which is a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) based approach, and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which is an Information Systems (IS) based approach. The sample size consisted of 68 participants completed the survey questionnaire measuring their responses to perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and attitudes towards usage (ATU). Through simultaneously both these instruments in one work for the purpose of usability evaluation. By doing so, this work attempts to streamline and unify the process of usability evaluation. Results that are obtained from a large-scale survey of university students show the attitudes towards usage on phygital learning. Moreover, this work also considers the digital-divide aspect (mobile v.s. web environment) whether it has any effect on the perceived usability. Results show that the multiple education modal could reduce the stress on the learning. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Introduction: how could rural tourism provide better support for wellbeing and socio-economic development?

Purpose - In this viewpoint, the theme editors provide an overview of the theme issue that aims to address the role of rural tourism in supporting the wellbeing and socio-economic development of local stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach - The paper covers different facets of rural tourism in promoting the socioeconomic development of rural communities. Specifically, the articles in this issue capture the nuances of how local stakeholders in rural tourism in different geographical regions use various strategies to promote the wellbeing and socio-economic development of local communities. Findings - The papers in this theme issue demonstrate the potential role of rural tourism in promoting the socio-economic development of rural communities. These papers make an important contribution to the theory and practice of rural tourism by providing in-depth insight into the recovery and growth strategies adopted by stakeholders in diverse rural tourism destinations, especially in the wake of turbulent times such as the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These papers suggest frameworks for further research and provide case studies of innovation and adaptation. Originality/value - This theme issue analyses stories of innovation, adaptation, and growth of rural tourism in various destinations that presented the industry with unique challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion provides some lessons and charts direction for the industry. The significance is greater when stakeholders of rural tourism and policymakers view rural tourism as an engine for the recovery and growth of the rural and national economy.

Post-covid City: Proximity Spaces, Sharing Economy and Phygital

The pandemic has accelerated a series of processes taking place within our cities, forcing people to live, work and socialize exclusively in their own home for several months and, even today, for large portions of time. On the one hand, the use of digital devices and web space for work, study and leisure has allowed to carry out most of the daily functions and work activities, on the other hand many others have had to open to new uses producing unprecedented spatial possibilities. All these processes are interesting because they define more hybrid, flexible, lean and phygital characteristics of the space. The aim of this research is to demonstrate how the proximity and sharing spaces of the city can be characterized by these new aspects. The methodology that was used is the selection of contemporary examples thanks to literature and web sources. In the end, the case studies outline possible scenarios describing opportunities for the post-covid age in the near future. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Phygital rural cultural heritage: a digitalisation approach for destination recovery and resilience

Purpose This study examines a phygital approach to rural cultural heritage tourism, adopted by a rural community in Sapphaya, Chai Nat Province, Thailand, in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Specifically, it investigates the community's initiatives to amalgamate its physical and digital marketing communications to engage with consumers as a strategy for destination recovery and resilience. Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative exploratory study involving three stages of action, applying two research approaches: (1) participatory action research (PAR) with Sapphaya's tourism stakeholders, and (2) social media research utilising netnographic analysis of Sapphaya's Tourism Social Enterprise social media pages. Findings The findings indicate that a phygital rural cultural heritage strategy can facilitate the interconnectivity between a destination's physical and digital dimensions of its cultural heritage tourism product, thereby enhancing its intrinsic value, meaning and experiential perceptions. Specifically, it recommends that a successful community-based phygitalisation strategy requires grassroots engagement across all stages of planning, development, implementation and management of the rural cultural heritage tourism product. Research limitations/implications There are limitations acknowledged in this research due to its focus on one rural destination site and community, as well as mobility and social-distancing challenges imposed by the pandemic. Nonetheless, there are opportunities for further research of the phygital rural cultural heritage tourism strategy and future empirical research to test the framework proposed. Practical implications The paper focuses on the cultural heritage tourism strategy adopted by a rural community across the physical-digital-phygital spectrum to augment its sustainable tourism development during a time of crisis. A framework for phygital rural cultural heritage as a strategy for destination resilience and recovery is also proposed. Originality/value This study is unique in that it adopts a local engagement approach to develop a cooperative community heritage management strategy, based upon local rural capacity building towards digitalisation and empowering innovative partnerships amongst its stakeholders.

Luxury consumption amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose This study investigates shifts in luxury consumers' perceptions regarding luxury consumption, subsequent changes in the meaning of luxury and antecedents of luxury observed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach Overall, 145, one-to-one qualitative interviews were conducted online with luxury consumers and the data acquired was analysed using NVivo. Findings Phygital connectedness and access-based consumption are the future of luxury for luxury consumers' well-being, social connectedness, living experience and rational and thoughtful luxury consumption. Moreover, distinct luxury symbols (e.g. conciseness towards societal connotation of luxury goods and consumption, empathy, wisdom and maturity) and transformation expectations (for the self, others in society and luxury brands) govern luxury consumption behaviour. Research limitations/implications The meaning of luxury amidst the pandemic is explained along a continuum, from luxury transforming consumers' inner selves to influencing other consumers' lives to transforming society. Practical implications Luxury professionals should include phygital experience, sustainability, social-cultural sensitivity, empathy, symbolism, mindfulness and thoughtfulness in marketing strategies. Originality/value New perspectives have enriched the realm of luxury.

Thinking Phygital: A Museological Framework of Predictive Futures

The Covid-19 pandemic has underpinned the relevance and significance of the strategic use of digital tools for museums as they were unexpectedly obliged to function from behind physically closed doors. Indeed, it is fair to state that museums have come to recognise the relevance and significance of the digital to a far greater degree than they did prior to the pandemic, and museums have also acknowledged an opportunity to experiment and engage with audiences through the strategic use of digital tools. With the return of physical museum audiences (albeit in fits and starts), museums might consider this to mean that digital tools are now less relevant, rather than identifying opportunities to strike a measure of equilibrium between the digital and physical going forward. Acknowledging what has been achieved so far is certainly one point of departure, although it provides only a limited view of the broad range of possibilities that museums might have to choose from in the future.This paper explores the possible spectrum of museum experiences within the remit of the ‘phygital’, and how the physical and the digital can potentially interact to define a museum experience through the lens of museum theory. The possible ‘phygital’ scenarios, ranging from what we will term ‘sustained physical’ to ‘autonomous digital’ shall be identified through the lens of a futures literacy methodology. Such a methodology allows us to rigorously anticipate possible future scenarios and is accompanied by a series of case studies that are also representative of such scenarios. Finally, the paper anticipates possible scenarios for the phygital in terms of museums’ goals, objectives and available resources.