Developing integrated e-tourism services for cultural heritage destinations

Abstract

The traditional approach to destination promotion pursued by cultural tourist cities is in need of fundamental revision. It is shown that cultural heritage is not well represented in existing e-destination platforms and e-tourism services, which reduces the competitiveness of urban tourism in an increasingly digital era. The paper discusses how cultural tourism destinations can develop intelligent systems that can improve access and use of their local heritage using integrated e-services. It is argued that if new e-services can convey diverse, distributed and multimedia information on cultural destinations and sites, then they can contribute to the cities' long-term competitiveness and sustainability. Establishing close links between the cultural heritage and ICT sectors is crucial to innovation in destinations' e-services. Discussion is based on theoretical analysis and three case study examples from Europe.