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Attitudes towards e-Solutions in a Small Destination

  • Conference paper
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2010

Abstract

The regional research and development project ITU reacts to an ongoing change in the service infrastructure of the Finnish tourism industry. Finnish Tourist Board decided to renew its VisitFinland site (visitfinland.com) and change it to satisfy the demands of the present day. The target destination in this research and development project is the province of Eastern Uusimaa that lies about 50 kms east of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The province with 90 000 inhabitants is a cultural destination with about 1 million annual visitors. The tourism industry in the province of Eastern Uusimaa is a network of small or micro companies that operate with minimal resources for development such as new products and target groups, networking and digital solutions or more sophisticated applications in the Internet. A web-based study explored the regional suppliers’ attitudes towards e-commerce and business supported by electronic facilities and portals. Based on the results of the study, tourism suppliers seem to know and understand that e-commerce enables business growth and new customers. But we could not get any clear answer to what type of portal (a regional one or one covering the whole country) respondents would prefer. Discussions in the future and the ITU project are to pave the way for e-solutions in this small destination.

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Ritalahti, J., Sarkkinen, J. (2010). Attitudes towards e-Solutions in a Small Destination. In: Gretzel, U., Law, R., Fuchs, M. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2010. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-99407-8_48

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