ICT and e-business in the tourism industry ICT adoption ... - empirica

Tourism
LCTA was very successful in lobbying for government financial support for initial
stages of the project;
It took almost two years to create a thorough database and certify all owners of
Lithuanian farmsteads. In addition the NGO held a number training sessions for the
business owners to teach them how to use the tool and benefit from it. According
to LCTA, however, there is still a significant lack of ‘business mentality’ among
farmstead owners in Lithuania;
After only one year of operation of the online search tool, farmstead owners were
convinced of the benefits of the tool and were ready to “foot the bill” of the project
themselves;
The main technological problem hindering further adoption of the tool is the lack of
internet access by the Lithuanian farm owners. In 2006, only about 30% of farmstay
owners had access to the web (no statistics on broadband or dial-up).
However the situation has improved significantly in comparison to the previous
years.
Impact
According to LCTA there was a significant impact on the rural tourism market in Lithuania
after the online search tool had been implemented in 2003. The impact can be seen in
terms of effects on arrivals, work organisation and business relations in farm-stay
business in the country. Although it is difficult to assess exactly the increase in tourist
arrivals due to the search tool, it has been noted that:
The 2004-2005 period saw a 28% increase in rural tourist arrivals; it was
suggested that up to 10% of this increase can be attributed to the search tool;
Foreigners constitute a growing share of farm-stay tourism in Lithuania. In 2005,
their share increased to 18% of total stays from 12% in 2004; the increase in
foreign arrivals can be directly attributed to the availability of the online search
engine because since 2004 almost all foreign visitors found their accommodations
via this site;
In 2005, 60% of domestic (Lithuanian) farm-stay visitors found their accommodation
via this site.
As to internal work organisation, the rural farms-stay owners have now centralised their
booking processes, which in effect helped to increase their occupancy rates faster. Most
reservations for the summer season (June-August) are already made two months in
advance.
The success of the online tool has encouraged farm-stay owners and the LCTA to lobby
harder for internet access in rural Lithuanian regions. Lithuania is (unfortunately only) one
of three countries in the EU-25 supporting wide-scale WIMAX implementation (Intel
based wide range (up to 10km) wireless internet) adoption, which would benefit rural
tourism significantly. The wireless solution is a good option for Lithuania because there is
a lack of fixed telephone lines to scarcely located farms in the province which could
provide standard modem dial-up or ADLS connections.
93