Online Tourist Portals of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region: Current Status and Prospects

Abstract

Digitalization of tourism in the Russian Federation is primarily associated with the increasing importance of tourism, not only as a way to spend leisure time, but also as a branch of the economy that can generate a significant income and ensure territorial development. Despite a large number of diverse tourism resources in the country, tourism development was highly uneven, concentrating in a limited number of regions. Information technology and especially the Internet has greatly toughened global competition over tourist flows. In today’s world, tourists would rather visit a place about which they can get sufficient information and where a trip can be easily arranged. The role of national and regional tourist web portals, supported by relevant government agencies, is significantly increasing in this context. The tourist information infrastructure should not only provide up-to-date and complete information, but also ensure usability for the tourist (including independent). Tourism within St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region is featured by rather close links between the regions and unification of tourist flows between them. Both regions have a significant quantity of tourist resources, which ensures development of various types of tourism. Creation of the ‘silver Necklace’ interregional route consolidated further integration between tourist resources of the neighboring regions. Tourist portals of these regions, nevertheless, significantly differ in their content and interactive capabilities. As part of the study, the information presented on tourist portals of Russia, St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region in terms of implementing interactive services was reviewed.

A critical evaluation of mobile guided tour apps: Motivators and inhibitors for tour guides and customers

“…Hedonic inhibitors are mainly connected to social interaction and lack of personalization. Environmental factors in this case may also affect behavioural factors of customers as Russia is clearly placing emphasis on the development of digitalization, including innovative quest excursions (Matveevskaya et al, 2018), but mobile app development appears to be still in its infancy (Tanina et al, 2020). On the other hand, TR in this case seems to be positively influenced by both innovativeness and optimism (Parasuraman, 2000) as the majority of the guides and customers are aged under 45 and the younger respondents seem most open to working with a digital platform.…”

“…Quest excursions include visiting the main sights of a city in an unusual way, for example, solving riddles or undertaking intellectual or cryptic challenges. Tanina et al (2020) provide an analysis of the current situation in Russia and especially St Petersburg in terms of the digitalization of tourism. They note that the ‘Visit Petersburg’ portal provides several interactive services but that the mobile application performs poorly or is absent.…”

The Influence of Affiliate Marketing on Tourist Decision-Making

“…Thеy havе divеrsе intеrеsts and may follow various affiliatеs who catеr to diffеrеnt nichеs, whеthеr it's travеl, tеchnology, bеauty, fitnеss, or othеr arеas . (Tanina, et al,2020).…”

Digital Competitiveness of Tourism SMEs

“…There are several approaches adopted by researchers to analyze the tourism websites of the host destination -Technical & non-technical content analysis (Rachman et al, 1997;Han & Mills, 2006), user experience based on the website features (Kim et al, 2008), self-evaluation (Krippendorff, 2018;Luna-Nevarez et al, 2012) and comparative study of tourism websites (Tanina et al, 2020) from different regions. Kim et al (2008) developed a travel planning and information search process through the internet and assessed online visitors' first impressions.…”