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tourism accommodations (home pages and e-mails) didnot coincide with the TIO information (e.g., in CēsisDistrict 3 accommodations do not mention home pagesthat are actually in the information database of the TIO).We may conclude from this that the latest information atthe disposal of the TIOs is processed very slowly to theLatvian Tourism Development Agency’s portalwww.latviatourism.lv; the fact that was also mentioned inthe interview by Latgale Region Tourism BureauManager L.Kondrāte.The second part of the research was devoted to theanalysis of Latvian Rural Tourism Association „Laukuceļotājs”, tourist accommodations who are associationcooperation partners. This methodology was chosen forseveral reasons:• The above mentioned association at present is thelargest professional tourism industry association inLatvia uniting about 300 members and more than 400cooperation partners – lodgings in all regions ofLatvia;• Accommodations of the association comprise about40 % of the whole offer in Latvian rural tourism(representing figure about the state in general;• The association maintains a regularly updateddatabase on association partners– accommodationsand their offers (incl. information on the availabilityof the Internet home pages and e-mails);• The association experts have had site visits to allaccommodations, so they may offer the latest andproven information;• The association accommodations are predominantlyoutside the big cities and Riga, therefore they suit asan objective reflection of the situation in rural regionscomprising the biggest part of the territory of Latvia;• The information on accommodation and their offer isalso available in the association’s publicly accessiblehome page www.celotajs.lv, having detailedinformation about each accommodation site.The research was done in February – March 2006.According to the opinion of the researchers, the timing isoptimal, as by this time the latest information onaccommodation possibilities for the new tourism seasonshould be updated. To a certain extent the research depictsthe readiness of accommodations for the summer seasonthat depending on suitable weather conditions may beginin the second half of May end continue until the middle ofSeptember.ANALYSIS OF VENTSPILS, JELGAVA, LUDZA,AND CĒSIS DISTRICTS TOURISTACCOMMODATIONS HOME PAGES:ADDRESSES, OPERATION, AND AVAILABILITYIN FOREIGN LANGUAGESDuring the research, all the 4 districts (Ventspils,Jelgava, Ludza and Cēsis) were checked.Tourist accommodations home pages indicated inTIO home pages (altogether 77, see Table 3) to find outif they were really functioning (7 were not functioning;the biggest number of them- 5 were in Cēsis District,one home page in Jelgava and one in Ventspils District.Table 3. Number of tourist accommodations (as of01.02.2006.) and tourist accommodations with givenhome pages in Ludza, Ventspils, Jelgava and CēsisDistricts. Source: Ludza TIO, Ventspils TIO, CēsisTIO, Jelgava TIO 2006, home page info- authors’research as of 01.02.2006).All WEB % WEB notworkingLudza City 1 - -Ludza District 18 3 16 -Ventspils City 34 7 1Ventspils District 53 24 36 -Cēsis City 13 7 -Cēsis District 89 23 29 5Jelgava City 4 4 1Jelgava District 21 6 40 -233 77 33 7Alongside accessibility of home pages, weevaluated their availability and operation in foreignlanguages. The conclusion is that entrepreneurs arereluctant and underestimate publication of informationin foreign languages. On several home pages, theowners have indicated symbols ENG, RUS, D(Ventspils District - 4, Cēsis District -3, JelgavaDistrict -2) meaning that there should be information inthese languages, yet it is not given there. However, itmay be noted as a positive aspect as it shows that theowners have considered it and trustful information willappear in the home pages by the beginning of theactive tourism season.A similar picture may be seen in the portalwww.viss.lv, where the majority of the touristaccommodations in the four districts do not haveadditional information in any foreign language, someof them even have not renewed the price proposals.The most popular languages used in home pages ofthe tourist accommodations of the four districts areunder discussion that are available in district TIC homepages are given in Table 4.Table 4. Availability of Information in ForeignLanguages on Home Pages of Tourist accommodationsin Ludza, Ventspils, Jelgava, Cēsis Districts (as of01.02.2006). Source: Authors’ research as of01.02.2006.Annual Proceedings of Vidzeme University College “ICTE in Regional Development”, 200697