ICT potential for tourism in rural areas

Abstract

Tourism in rural areas is considered small-scale tourism, which represents a strong potential for growth of areas traditionally characterized as agricultural areas. Small-scale also implies that economical gains are hard to achieve due to high operating costs caused by remoteness of rural areas. With ICT, tourism in rural areas can be improved through improvement of visibility, communication, marketing, customer perceived benefits through convenience, and in return growth, profitability, efficiency, effectivity and the quality of life of local population can be enhanced. Rural tourism tends to be heterogeneous with many different and scattered stakeholders, making the efficiency and effectivity hard to achieve. The aim of this research is to propose a model for the inclusion of ICT, and specifically information system, to increase efficiency of the rural small-scale tourism. The goal of this information system is to gather a rich database that will allow potential tourists to identify their next destination and to identify most valuable assets for each location in the region.