Raksti II - LLU Fundamentālā bibliotēka - Latvijas Lauksaimniecības ...

SOCIĀLO ZINĀTŅU FAKULTĀTES RAKSTI III
The starting point of the journey was selected a hotel in the centre of Riga Radisson
Blu, and as the local destinations were selected the Riga Central maket, the Art Nouveau
museum, the Open air museum, Jurmala, as well as the Rundale Castle. The justification of the
author’s choice: to reach the selected destinations from the centre of Riga (where the tourist is
hypothetically staying), various means of public transport and also walking, with the use of a
city map and different visual informative notices. Some of the destinations are essentially
different, moreover, and not all of them have been arranged, taking into account the needs of a
foreign tourist.
• summarizing the data,
• evaluating the results,
• making conclusions and offering suggestions.
Sample of the research
The sample of expert interviews comprised 5 respondents. The respondents were selected
according to the following principles:
• Area of operation- all experts are employed in the area of tourism,
• Work experience with foreign tourists- four of the experts have 10-20 years of
experience working at with foreign tourists,
• Various areas of tourism are represented – experts belong to different areas of
tourism, in addition- three of them have leading managerial positions in the tourism
industry.
The process and results of the research
Expert interviews
Interviewing the employees of Riga Tourist Information centre the author clarified the
basic needs of foreign travellers (first of all individual travellers), their main needs and
requirements. Interviewing the marketing director of the Latvian Tourism Development
Agency (further in the text LTDA) Linda Penka the author learned about the current problems
of the tourism field (basically- financial), because of which the translation of tourist
information in foreign languages is limited. In the interview with the LTDA director’s advisor
and lecturer in School of Business Administration Turiba Aija van der Steina the author
defined, what exactly disappoints foreign tourists from a foreign language perspective. In the
interviews with the head of a travel agency A-SONO Zanda Sena and the corporate group
travel consultant in the Baltics and a long- term travel guide Aira Liepkalne, as well as the
director of the travel agency FTB Latvia Anta Jokste, the author clarified the new trends in
inbound tourism. As a result of all the previously mentioned interviews the following
assumption is justified: foreign tourists (especially tourists from Germany) more and more
often select individual and independent travel, therefore without the guidance of a tour operator
and travel agencies they arrange their own itinerary, make electronic reservations of transport
and accommodations and independently select tourist attractions, previously collecting
information about them form various sources, basically in the I-net. Using the information
searcher Google programme, and printing the phrase “tourism in Latvia”, a sufficient amount
of information in the English, German and Russian languages becomes available. Latvia’s
official tourism portal (Kurp doties, 2010) must be specifically mentioned, although the author
found several grammar and spelling mistakes in the English version of this piece of
information. Pictures, maps, explanations, how to get to the selected destination, as well as
more detailed information about the history of the site, etc., are available.
The rapidly growing number of individual travellers lets the author make the
conclusion that the necessity to supply information, vital for a tourist in foreign languages, is
becoming more and more topical.
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