Possible marketing tools for heritage tourism: the potential of implementing information and communication technology

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has major marketing impacts on both the demand and the supply side in cultural and heritage tourism. However, while there is quite substantial research on how ICTs affect visitors and their experiences, little can be found in the literature on the supply side. The purpose of our study is to fill this gap. To do so, we executed in-depth interviews with 20 experts from cultural and heritage tourism in Germany. Through the interviews we gained evidence from the supply side on five discourses, which evolve around the issues of the shift in visitor typologies and demand, marketing benefits of digital technologies, preconditions and barriers of implementation and currently relevant technologies. All in all, the results clearly increase our understanding on what experts think on the implementation and use of ICTs in cultural and heritage tourism. Recommendations for practice regarding, for example, cooperation and professionalization and for further research conclude our analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• ICTs
• cultural and heritage tourism
• marketing possibilities
• digital technologies
• supply side perception

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Prof. Dr. Andrea Hausmann is a professor of arts and cultural management at the Institute for Cultural Management, Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany.

Lena Weuster is a research assistant at the Institute for Cultural Management, Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany.