Zeszyt naukowy - całość - Wydział ZarzÄ dzania i Ekonomiki Usług

98
Peter Mayer, Adam Pawlicz
Tourinform’s, but many of the newly established DMOs do not provide tourist information
right now. Thus, on the one hand side, in some cases there is a new need
to coordinate the work of more Tourinform offices now managed by one DMO,
which necessarily pushes the whole system towards the de-centralized model. In
other areas there are DMO’s established which do not ’inherit’ any Tourinform
office. These, of course, face different problems and will have to take more initial
steps towards developing tourist information service. It is open yet, if they will go
the same way, establishing one central information center first, or they will be able
to skip this step and launch de-centralized and possibly even de-localized model of
information provision.
Financially the involvement of new actors from the tourism branch raises the
question if the material resources available to DMO’s in general and tourist information
service in particular can be extended. It is also obvious that more funding
can only come from the private sector as local communities’ budgets are constantly
under pressure. However, in most cases, the tourism branch is more eager to codecide
then to co-finance. Based on a study of tourist information centres at Lake
Balaton it is clear that tourism enterprises are willing to provide financial means to
the new DMOs. 7 out of 8 offices responding to the study accepted the need to contribute
with financial means. However this mainly happens in the form of membership
fees, which are not related to the actual costs. The bulk of financing, 40-60% is
still provided by the local authorities. In all cases direct income from tourism enterprises
and their associations is less than 20% of the overall budget. Regional development
– in frame of the national development plan – provides additional 15-20%,
mainly to cover one-time set-up costs associated with the launch of the new system.
A promising development however is that the DMOs could generate income from
the market by providing value added services to the tourists, such as mediating
services, selling souvenirs and providing own services (e.g. guided tours). This kind
of income covered 15% of the overall budget (figure 4).
Figure 4. Average financing of tourist information service (n=8)
Source: own elaboration.