Abstract
This paper presents the results of a two year research project — TOURIT — which has investigated the extent to which ICT applications have been taken up by small tourism firms in three European regions; the possible barriers to participation in ICT and their related enterprise support needs. This survey project forms part of a European Union LEONARDO DA VINCI study (UK/97/1/39005/EA/III.2.a/CONT) which focuses on the vocational training needs and business development opportunities that might be offered to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism and hospitality sector. The survey compares three region-types and scales of tourism activity — the World City-state of Greater London, UK; The Netherlands, and the Aragon province, comprising three districts in north-east Spain. The study therefore provides a contrast between capital city and national tourism system in northern Europe and rural/mountain-based tourism in a lesser-developed region of Spain. The research has also been conducted in the context of both national and European (EU) tourism and related policy regimes, and the global ICT and CRS tourism systems within which small tourism enterprises operate. Initial research findings based on the pilot survey in London, together with a review of literature and European policy interventions, were presented at the previous ENTER conference (Evans and Peacock 1999) — this paper therefore presents the final results of this comparative survey, including an assessment of the findings and implications for tourism SMEs.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Buhalis, D.: ICT as a Strategic Tool for Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises’, in A.V. Seaton et al, Tourism: The State of the Art, West Sussex: Wiley: 254–274 (1994)
Buhalis, D.: IT as a Strategic Tool for Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Benefits Enhancement of Tourism Destination Regions, Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research3: 71–93 (1997)
Buhalis, D. and Cooper, C.: Competition or Co-operation? Small and medium-sized tourism enterprises at the destination, in Embracing and Managing Change in Tourism’ (Laws, E. et al, eds.), London: Routledge (1998)
Castells, M.: The Rise of the Network Society, Ma., USA: Blackwell (1996)
CEC: Report on the Evaluation of the Community Action Plan to Assist Tourism 1993-95, 92/421 EC, Brussels: European Commission (1996a)
CEC: First Multiannual programme to Assist European Tourism “PHILOXENIA” (1997-2000), Brussels: European Commission (1996b)
Dahles, H.: Tourism, small entrepreneurs, and sustainable development: Cases from developing countries, ATLAS, Tilburg University (1997)
EC: The European Observatory for SMEs, 5th Annual Report, Brussels (1997)
Evans, G.L.: Networking for Growth and Digital Business, Schertler W., et al (eds.), ENTER’99 ICT in Tourism, Springer-Verlag, Wein: 376–387 (1999)
Molina, P.: Rural Tourism in the Province of Teruel: Contribution to the stabilisation of its population and sustainable development, MA dissertation, University of North London (1998)
Richards, G.: ICT use by SMEs, ATLAS Asia Conference, Entrepreneurship and Education in Tourism, Bandung (1999)
Werthner, H., Nachira, F., Orests, S., Pollock, A.: Information Society Technology for Tourism. Report of the Strategic Advisory Group on the 5th Framework Program on Information Society, 8 December (1997)
Smeral, E.: The impact of globalization on small and medium enterprises: new challenges for tourism policies in European countries, Tourism Management 19: 371–380 (1998)
Wanhill, S.: Peripheral Area Tourism: A European Perspective, Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research 3: 47–70 (1997)
Werthner, H. and Klein, S.: Information technology and tourism — A Challenging Relationship, Springer-Verlag, Wien (1999)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer-Verlag Wien
About this paper
Cite this paper
Evans, G., Peacock, M. (2000). Small is Beautiful? ICT and Tourism SMEs: a Comparative European Survey. In: Fesenmaier, D.R., Klein, S., Buhalis, D. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2000. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6291-0_45
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6291-0_45
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-211-83483-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-6291-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive