The potential of cooperative networks to leverage tourism in rural regions

Abstract

-Rural tourism can be an opportunity to perform the development of the most disadvantaged rural areas. In this pursuit, there are many challenges to face for make this sector competitive and economically viable. This paper focuses on develop a better understanding of rural tourism and the need for cooperative paradigms that can leverage its competitiveness. In this context, a conceptual model and a technology-based system is presented to bridge the gap between heritage resources and business opportunities to enable regional development.

Cooperation for the implementation of digital applications in rural cultural tourism marketing

“…Cooperation, especially between providers from different stages of the value chain, have long been considered the most important success factor in cultural tourism (Fo ¨hl and Pro ¨bstle, 2013;Steinecke, 2013;Hausmann, 2019;Du Cros and McKercher, 2020). Especially in rural areaswith a typically small-scale provider structure and, as a result, a poorly integrated offer and a low responsiveness to tourists' demandsstakeholders rely on entering into such long-term and competitive cooperation (Drda-Ku ¨hn and Wiegand, 2010; Polo and Frias, 2010;Neumeier and Pollermann, 2014;Mendonca et al, 2018). The study by Burzinski et al (2018) also draws attention to the challenges of cultural tourism in rural areas.…”

“…However, what has not been studied so far are the pitfalls for cooperation projects that occur especially in cultural tourism marketing in rural areas. In contrast, various studies have already concluded that such cooperation is particularly useful in the context of implementing digital applications (Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2015;Mendonca et al, 2018;Abidin et al, 2019). But one of the weaknesses of these studies is, that the thematic focus has so far either remained too general in terms of the role or advantages of digital applications for the development of cooperation (Del Chiappa and Baggio, 2015;Mendonca et al, 2018) or that the studies focus on the exchange of data and information (Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2015;Buhalis and Leung, 2018;Abidin et al, 2019).…”

“…In contrast, various studies have already concluded that such cooperation is particularly useful in the context of implementing digital applications (Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2015;Mendonca et al, 2018;Abidin et al, 2019). But one of the weaknesses of these studies is, that the thematic focus has so far either remained too general in terms of the role or advantages of digital applications for the development of cooperation (Del Chiappa and Baggio, 2015;Mendonca et al, 2018) or that the studies focus on the exchange of data and information (Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2015;Buhalis and Leung, 2018;Abidin et al, 2019). In addition, current German-language studies show that many cultural tourism providers in rural areas have a rather hesitant attitude towards the use of digital applications for tourism marketing and still rarely use them (Hausmann and Weuster, 2017;Burzinski et al, 2018).…”

“…Digital applications can have enormous potential for marketing of cultural tourism attractions in rural areas (Pen ˜a and Jamilena, 2010;Polo and Frias, 2010;Mendonca et al, 2018). Of the many available applications, research sees particularly great potential for success in the use of Web-based apps (Web apps) (Gretzel, 2009;Althoff et al, 2012;Leung et al, 2013;Fortunato and Bernardino, 2018).…”

“…They are characterised by the fact that they can be used before, during and after the journey of a cultural tourist (Wang, 2012;Dickinson et al, 2016;Agapito and Lacerda, 2014). However, to be able to successfully implement digital applications, such as Web apps, strategic cooperation is needed (Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2015;Katiyar and Priyanka, 2015;Mendonca et al, 2018;Abidin et al, 2019).…”