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Financing tourist information service… 91
cause of market failure (tourism branch will not provide neutral service in the free
market) 6 . Most commentators such as Ch. Copper and S. Wanhill 7 consider asymmetry
reduction of information as a government policy instrument that serves to
manage tourism demand. Sometimes tourist information system can be seen as an
additional intermediary between tourism demand and supply, i.e. a part of tourism
market. Tourist information centres, however, disseminate rather information than
products per se, and do not charge provision for its service, so it is difficult to treat
them as a competition to traditional travel agents.
Tourist information system which, as a term, is as ambiguous as ‘tourism system’
8 usually encompasses traditional and digital part. Tourist information points,
signage and all informative material that is distributed by tourist information centres
are considered as traditional part of tourist information while info-kiosks and all
information available via internet site constitute a digital part of tourist information
9 . This study will focus mostly on traditional part of tourist information which
can be hardly replaced by a digital one 10 .
Tourists information centres (TICs), called sometimes “Welcome Centers” or
“Visitors Centre” according to Encyclopedia of Tourism 11 “provide information and
reservations for destinations and tourism enterprises. Run by local, regional or national
organizations, they aim to facilitate a visit for consumers and to assist organizations
to implement their policies, by increasing tourists’ length of stay and expenditure
or by discouraging them from visiting environmentally sensitive areas”. This
definition presents a TIC as an institution not only financed but also organized by
an undefined tourism organization. Hence, TICs are just one channel through which
necessary information reaches tourists.
Most authors would agree that provision of tourist information in a destination
should be financed by public authorities responsible for tourism development in the
region. Its institutional framework is, however, shaped differently according to local
social and economic environment. While there has been little detailed research on
the role of tourist information on the tourism market, there has been deafening silence
in tourism literature about institutional framework in which tourist information
centres operate.
6
C. Hall, Tourism planning: policies, processes and relationships, Pearson, Essex 2008,
pp. 47–57.
7
Ch. Copper, S. Wanhill, Tourism: principles and practice, Pearson, Essex 2008, pp. 448–
450.
8
Comp.: N. Vanhove, op.cit.
9
R. Ziółkowski, Zarządzanie informacją regionie turystycznym, Wydawnictwo Politechniki
Białostockiej, Białystok 2007, pp. 41–42.
10
Comp.: R. Malaka, A. Zipf, Challenging IT research in the framework of a tourist information
system, http://interaction.zhdk.ch/projects/mobility2018/wpcontent/uploads/2006/11/challenging_it_research.pdf
DoA, 20.08.2009.
11
Encyclopedia of Tourism, J. Jafari (ed.), Routledge 2000, p. 307.