The application potential of mobile excursion applications for the rural tourism development in the Rostov region

Abstract

The present article is concerned with usability of smartphone applications in the field of tourism and excursions to expand rural tourism in the territory of the Rostov region. Analysis of the market of smartphone touristic applications, their relevance in regard to various parameters (preferred territories, user age), geography of arrival, growth rate of user count. Recommendations on the development of smartphone application usage in the field of rural tourism with consideration of the existing possibilities and prospects.

Developing a “Smart Village” through the Implementation of Mobile Applications

“…Digital transformation of rural tourism destinations could be realized through the implementation of virtual tours (Roblek et al, 2021) and mobile applications (Lim et al, 2015;Kazmina et al, 2021;Martin et al, 2022). Entering the new century, mobile applications and virtual tours have played a key role in the growth of rural tourism and the promotion of rural areas.…”

“…Virtual tours have played a particularly important role in the development of tourism and the promotion of rural destinations. In rural areas, it has been very important to create mobile tourism applications, through which self-guided rural tourists could visit and discover rural areas with tourist potential but no organized tourist routes (Kazmina et al, 2021). In addition, virtual tourism could fulfil cultural, educational and recreational functions of rural tourism destinations (Cherevichko, 2004).…”

“…Rural tourism development based on information technology (IT) has been discussed thoroughly in various research papers, regarding the changes in rural tourism offer under the influence of IT (Pena and Jamilena, 2010;Ruiz-Molina et al, 2010;Polo Pena et al, 2011;Polo Pena et al, 2013;Simkova, 2013;Evans and Parravicini, 2005;Kumar, 2020;Zhu and Shang, 2021), the IT-based sustainable development of rural tourism (Mitchell and Hall, 2005;Andreopoulou et al, 2014), the promotion of rural tourism services through IT channels (Clarke, 2005;Bethapudi, 2015), as well as the IT acceptance by rural residents (Gan et al, 2016;. However, the specific analysis of mobile technology usage in rural tourism has been done rarely (Kim et al, 2012;Kazmina et al, 2021;Wang, 2021).…”